Who needs foreign enemies when
you've got Congress to do their dirty work for them? In 2008,
Russia apparently attempted to make a
pact with China to force the U.S. to bail out government-sponsored
enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The plan, first reported in
former Treasury Secratary Hank Paulson's memoirs, failed. But, like
a football team that forgets which end of the field its goal posts
are on, we ended up bailing out the two giant, quasi-public
mortgage agencies anyway.
Naturally, Russian officials firmly deny the whole thing, presumably because they're in the midst of a deal to sell the idea to the makers of the next James Bond movie.
Link via Clusterstock. Read more on bailouts and GSEs from Tim Cavanaugh.
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|1.29.10 @ 11:50AM|#
Maybe if we Canucks suggest the US should run huge deficits and go massively into debt, the Obama administration won't do it?
IOW, the "Brer Rabbit" approach.
Women Love Me!|1.29.10 @ 12:21PM|#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gncW1zqMFgs
|1.29.10 @ 2:36PM|#
Why does this smell of South Ossetia ?
Did the Russians eventually trigger the near financial collapse ?
Doesn this mean it wasn't Bush's fault ?
This does show that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have foreign policy/national security elements.
Corduroy Rocks|1.29.10 @ 4:23PM|#
The national debt is a security issue in general. Just ask the Brits about Suez.