The Rainmaker: Freddie the FreeLoader vs. Sarah Palin

If you have every seen the movie the Rainmaker, then you may remember a scene where Danny Devito is talking to Matt Damon about insurance scams that target the poor.

Well take the architect Leland Brendsel statments in regard to Freddie home loans:

"Home ownership rates for African Americans and Hispanics are significantly lower than those for whites," says Brendsel. "There are a lot of people who are not homeowners because they are not getting the kind of service or access to financial products that they need." (Source: ABA Banking Journal, Wednesday, March 1 2000)

Who is Leland Brendsel?
http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/leland-brendsel.asp?cycle=02

CampaignMoney.com

Leland Brendsel Contribution List in 2002
Name & Location Employer/Occupation Dollar
Amount Date Primary/
General Contibuted To

BRENDSEL, LELAND
MACLEAN, VA
22102 FREDDIE MAC $1,000 07/23/2002 G FRIENDS OF DICK DURBIN COMMITTEE - Democrat

Brendsel, Leland Mr.
MCLEAN, VA
22102 Freddie Mac/CEO $2,500 07/12/2002 G FEDERAL VICTORY FUND

BRENDSEL, LELAND
MC LEAN, VA
22102 FREDDIE MAC $1,000 06/30/2002 G FRIENDS OF SENATOR ROCKEFELLER - Democrat

BRENDSEL, LELAND
MCLEAN, VA
22102 FREDDIE MAE $1,000 06/30/2002 G REED COMMITTEE - Democrat

Brendsel, Leland
MCLEAN, VA
22102 Freddie Mac/C.E.O. $2,000 06/28/2002 P LONE STAR FUND

BRENDSEL, LELAND
MC LEAN, VA
22102 FREDDIE MAC $1,000 06/28/2002 G TIM JOHNSON FOR SOUTH DAKOTA INC - Democrat

Brendsel, Leland
MCCLEAN, VA
22102 Freddie-Mae/CEO $1,000 06/28/2002 P MALONEY FOR CONGRESS - Democrat

Brendsel, Leland
MC LEAN, VA
22102 Freddie Mac/Chairman & CEO $1,000 06/20/2002 P DEDICATED AMERICANS FOR THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE PAC(DASHPAC)

Brendsel, Leland
MC LEAN, VA
22102 FreddieMac/Chief Executive Officer $1,000 01/30/2002 P DEFEND AMERICA PAC

Brendsel, Leland
MCLEAN, VA
22102 Freddie Mac/CEO $1,000 01/03/2002 P FRIENDS OF JOHN LAFALCE - Democrat

BRENDSEL, LELAND
MC LEAN, VA
22102 FREDDIE MAC $1,000 12/31/2001 G WAYNE ALLARD FOR UNITED STATES SENATE COMMITTEE - Republican

Brendsel, Leland
MCLEAN, VA
22102 Freddie Mac/Chairman & CEO $1,000 12/31/2001 G PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI - Democrat

BRENDSEL, LELAND
MCLEAN, VA
22102 FREDDIE MAC $1,000 12/31/2001 P PEOPLE FOR PATTY MURRAY U S SENATE CAMPAIGN - Democrat

Brendsel, Leland
WASHINGTON, DC
20004 Freddie Mac/CEO $1,000 11/20/2001 G FRIENDS OF RAHM EMANUEL - Democrat

Brendsel, Leland
WASHINGTON, DC
20004 Freddie Mac/CEO $1,000 09/04/2001 P FRIENDS OF RAHM EMANUEL - Democrat

BRENDSEL, LELAND
MC LEAN, VA
22102 FREDDIE MAC $1,000 08/02/2001 P FRIENDS OF SENATOR ROCKEFELLER - Democrat

BRENDSEL, LELAND
MCLEAN, VA
22102 FREDDIE MAE $1,000 06/30/2001 P REED COMMITTEE - Democrat

BRENDSEL, LELAND
MCLEAN, VA
22102 FREEMACK TOOLS $1,000 06/29/2001 P ENZI FOR US SENATE - Republican

Brendsel, Leland
MCLEAN, VA
22102 Freddie Mac/CEO $500 06/26/2001 P CITIZENS FOR MARK SHRIVER - Democrat

BRENDSEL, LELAND
MC LEAN, VA
22102 FREDDIE MAC $1,000 06/22/2001 P TIM JOHNSON FOR SOUTH DAKOTA INC - Democrat

Brendsel, Leland Mr.
MC LEAN, VA
22102 Fredddi Mac/Chairman & CEO $1,000 06/05/2001 P KEN BENTSEN FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE - Democrat

Brendsel, Leland
MCLEAN, VA
22102 Freddie Mac $1,000 05/29/2001 P PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI - Democrat

BRENDSEL, LELAND
MC LEAN, VA
22102 FREDDIE MAC $1,000 05/29/2001 P WAYNE ALLARD FOR UNITED STATES SENATE COMMITTEE - Republican

Brendsel, Leland Mr.
MCLEAN, VA
22102 Freddie Mac/CEO $2,500 05/24/2001 P FEDERAL VICTORY FUND

BRENDSEL, LELAND
MC LEAN, VA
22102 FREDDIE MAC $1,000 05/23/2001 G FRIENDS OF CHRIS DODD 2004 - Democrat

BRENDSEL, LELAND
MC LEAN, VA
22102 FREDDIE MAC $1,000 05/23/2001 P FRIENDS OF CHRIS DODD 2004 - Democrat

Brendsel, Leland
MC LEAN, VA
22102 Freddie Mac/CEO $1,000 05/10/2001 P RE-ELECT HAROLD FORD JR - Democrat

Ordinary investors believed that the company’s quasi-governmental status would insulate shareholders from big losses. Sound like the same principal in buying insurance? Trust is the operative word.

"...Mr. Syron’s predecessor at Freddie Mac, Leland C. Brendsel, took home more than $28.4 million from 1993 to 2003, the only part of his pay package that was publicly disclosed during his 13-year tenure as chief executive."

http://siliconinvestor.advfn.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=24924554

Who were the top two presidential candidates to get donations from Freddie Mac in 2008?

Chris Dodd $19,818 and Barack Obama $13,600 and Hillary Clinton came in third.

http://www.politicalbase.com/groups/freddie-mac/13621/&page=4

Back to the Rainmaker where Danny Devito talks about the insurance scam hitting the low income people.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/weekinreview/04bajaj.html

Last year, about 70 percent of the loans made in the Detroit neighborhood carried a high interest rate — defined as 3 percentage points more than the yield on a comparable Treasury note — while in Plymouth just 17 percent did.

Last year, blacks were 2.3 times more likely, and Hispanics twice as likely, to get high-cost loans as whites after adjusting for loan amounts and the income of the borrowers, according to an analysis of loans reported under the federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. (Asians are somewhat less likely than whites to take out high-cost loans.)

In today's news, Palin talked briefly about the mortage meltdown. Those at the Huffington Post were huffing and puffing trying to blow Palin down.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/08/palin-makes-her-first-gaf_n_124792.html


First to the quote by Palin:

Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers." The companies, as McClatchy reported, "aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization."

MEMO to Huffington Post:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/01/24/8234040/index.htm

The Fall of Fannie Mae By BETHANY MCLEAN January 24, 2005

Ouch. It did become too big and has cost the taxpayers. Where in the hell have the folks at Huffington Post been.

The Dems are to blame on this one and to quote:

The Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (Freddie) have always been unique institutions. They are publicly held, for-profit corporations that were legislated into existence by Congress and operate with a congressional charter to help lower- and middle-income Americans buy homes. (They are often referred to as government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs.) Fannie was founded in 1938 as a federal agency and became a for-profit company in 1968. Freddie, started in 1970, offered shares to the public in 1989.

It is not a private organization like Exxon that is publicly traded. It is a quasi-governmental organization that is publicly traded. GSE is the operative acronym.

Moreover, tax money is used to back the treasury credit that the organizations had access to.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/19/news/economy/greenspan_fannie/

Fed chief says company and Freddie Mac have exploited their relationship with the Treasury

NEW YORK (CNN) - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan Thursday suggested that the nation's mortgage lending giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are taking advantage of their implicit government subsidy to pad their profits with investments that are too risky, which is not helping the nation's homeowners.