patrick.net
An Antidote to Corporate Media
1,209,988 comments by 14,383 users - Al_Sharpton_for_President, Blue, GreaterNYCDude online now
Is Fannie Mae's Implicit Guarantee In Danger?
invite response
2008 Feb 5, 12:33am 11,446 views 165 comments
« First « Previous Comments 159 - 165 of 165 Search these comments
Oh, and, yes, Hillary really sucks. Or... perhaps she doesn't ? (Sorry --just *couldn't* resist going there.)
lunarpark,
Of course the Merc had to throw in the usual, line about how the Bay Area is faring much better than the rest of the state. It wouldn't be the Merc without mindless cheerleading, now would it?
Just got a call from an ex-colleague who is semi-retired and does software contract work on the side. The company he was at just canned a bunch of contract workers last Friday, and he also heard of contractors being let go in large numbers in other places in the South Bay.
Given yesterday's news from CSCO, this can't be good news for Silicon Valley high-tech employment numbers - although it probably won't show up in the "un"-employment data because they were on contract.
Remember the thesis about "fortress will crack when dual income tech families lose jobs"? Grab a seat. It is starting.
Hm, an acquintence in the BA is a contract worker. He writes software that's half code, half bugs, backdoors, logic bombs, etc so he is sure to get paid. He admits this freely, with an evil grin.
Now, buying/selling on Ebay is pretty skanky, but the realities of being a software contractor are not any prettier.
Playing a banjo for tips on the street comes off as quite noble by comparison!
Hmm yes yet another good point - since they're contractors and self-employed, they won't show up in the numbers, just like I don't. In fact I saw this mentioned on tickerforums or somewhere, that the self-employed are taking a big hit.
Malcolm 10:26PM - that needs to be written in gold leaf at the top of the page!
I agree 100.0000%
justme
2008 Feb 7, 6:01am
HARM, Randy, Patrick et al:
I'm still up for the blog party Fri 5pm. I trust Patrick has everyone's email address if anything should change.
« First « Previous Comments 159 - 165 of 165 Search these comments
Fannie Mae has the implicit backing of US taxpayers. That is, Fannie Mae, a private company, assumes that US taxpayers will be forced to bail it out no matter how many bad loans it buys from banks.
But the guarantee was always implicit, never written down and specifically agreed to. Is it possible that Fannie Mae will go bankrupt, and Congress will have the courage to refuse to put middle class taxpayers on the hook for ultra expensive mortgages in California and New York?
What happens then?
Fannie Mae has very little cash of its own, but is just a conduit for packaging loans into mortgage-backed bonds. It is the holders of those bonds who will suffer the losses.
#housing