On Aug. 17, 2012, the federal government began expropriating all the earnings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giants that succumbed to the 2008 crisis.
Now the government is taking extraordinary measures to keep secret the deliberations surrounding that action. What exactly is it trying to hide?
That is the question being asked by a Fannie and Freddie shareholder who has sued the government over the 2012 profit grab. The investor contends that the move amounted to an improper taking of its property; the government disagrees.
Margaret M. Sweeney, a judge in the Court of Federal Claims, will determine who is right. But in the meantime, consider the remarkable secrecy demands that the government has made in the matter.
Previously undisclosed court records show that the Justice Department has asserted presidential privilege to prevent 45 documents from being produced. These materials — emails, draft memos and news releases — were created by officials at the Treasury Department and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the overseer of Fannie and Freddie since they collapsed in 2008.
There’s no doubt the taxpayer bailout of Fannie and Freddie in September 2008 was a political nightmare. For decades, the companies had maintained that their mortgage operations posed no risk to taxpayers; their pals in Congress echoed this refrain.
But then came the mortgage debacle, and taxpayers had to shore up the companies with $187.5 billion.
via After the Housing Crisis, a Cash Flood and Silence – NYTimes.com.
