The Justice Dept. in 2003 found that Freddie had been cooking its books for years and levied very large fines. Not to be outdone, two separate federal reports (one in 04 and another in 06) found that Fannie had been cooking its books for years, misstating earnings by over 10 billion from 1998 through 2004 in order to allow certain bigwigs to rake in large bonuses.

So, who at Fannie benefitted from the cooked books, fraud and mismanagement? How about Chairman Franklin Raines, Bill Clinton’s OMB director, who received 52 million in bonuses. And Vice Chair Jamie Gorelick, Clinton’s deputy attorney general, who raked in 15 million in bonuses. Chairman and Chief Executive James A. Johnson (1.9 million).

Greenspan warned about the potential disaster in 2004. In response, ignoring the warning by Greenspan, HUD mandated that Fannie and Freddie had to start handing out mortgages to minority and moderate-income buyers. Creditworthiness was of little concern.

And on top of all of this, while on the verge of disaster, these two companies were doling out large charitable contributions (millions) to groups such as Jesse Jackson’s organizations and to urban/minority projects and grants (500 million). Over 200 million was spent on lobbying costs and campaign contributions.

What a mess our government created with these two dysfunctional companies that hold approx. half of the nation’s mortgages.

Heh, don’t it just.