Foreclosed On—By the U.S.
CLICK ON ARTICLE TITLE TO VIEW ENTIRE ARTICLE
Matt’s Take on the New’s
September 2, 2010
Foreclosed On—By the U.S.
Serena Ng and Carrick Mollenkamp from the Wall Street Journal wrote an article about a problem our woeful government has inherited. When our government decided to bail out the thimble heads from Bear Stearns, they inherited a portfolio of commercial and residential real estate. Guess What? The government is about to foreclose on many of these parcels! The authors are quoted, “It is an unprecedented test for the most powerful of 12 regional branches of the Federal Reserve System. In its 96-year history, the Fed hasn’t made or controlled loans to U.S. citizens and businesses outside of banking since the 1930s, when it was done on a much smaller scale. Now, under the watchful eye of Congress, the New York Fed must recoup a $29 billion loan secured by the Bear assets.”
For the Fed to come in and foreclose on properties puts it at some reputational and political risk,” said Vincent Reinhart, a former senior Fed staffer who is now an economist at the American Enterprise Institute. “If the Fed can’t figure out how to recast the terms of these mortgages and work with borrowers—it’s emblematic of the problems the government has had with other programs over the last year and a half,” he added.
Click on the link to read the rest of the article. It may add some humor to your day!
