Monday, January 23, 2012

Romney has $500,000 invested in Fannie & Freddie

Yes, It's Al Sharpton, but others here have used videos and articles from Chris Matthews and other far left hacks to make a point. Perhaps we'll hear more about this tonight...
"Nice try Willard, but we got ya."

45 comments:

Right Wingnut said...

Also,

He flip flops on whether the government should solve the foreclosure problem.

http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2012/01/romney-flip-flops-abandons-capitalism-on-florida-housing-issue.html

Teemu said...

Frankly person who thinks this is issue doesn't understand anything about capitalism.

There is nothing bad or hypocritical in buying F&F bonds and criticizing some one for lobbying for F&F, than there is in buying government bonds while criticizing excessive debt spending.

If suddenly no one bought any bonds, whether it is government debt bonds, F&F, municipal bonds, the crap would hit the fan.

Teemu said...

The Romney aide said the investment was made by Romney's charitable trust.

So those go to charity.

Anonymous said...

Romney has had all his investments in a blind trust since he started running for Governor in 2002. IF (and I mean big if) his money is in F&F or the Caymans or wherever, it is because the trust manager put it there.

Alan said...

Romney engaged in capitalism? Gasp!! The scandalous nature of these allegations!
---
Buying bonds, even F&F bonds, is a perfectly legitimate investment, whether a trust fund did it or Romney did it himself. Millions of people own such bonds. I probably have some myself via my 401k.

Terrye said...

Oh please...all of America had money invested in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac..come on. That is the problem with so many people..they do not understand investments or trusts or capitalism..that is why they get off on it when some parasite like Newt Gingrich trashes honest businessmen.

Al Sharpton? Well, remember and Newt are tight.

Teemu said...

Seriously what is wrong with people who can't separate lobbying from buying bonds?

Terrye said...

As for flip flopping, I just don't see that..besides Newt is still out there talking about how government should help poor people buy houses so go yell at him...oh but you can't do that can you?

Anonymous said...

this is a slam job!! false crap. even if he invested theres nothing wrong with it. he was trying to help the company not go down. he didnt make money off them like newt and others did. so stop this garbage bout trying to find everything bad bout mitt romney when there is 400 million things bad bout newt gingrich and noone is pointing those out

Anonymous said...

RW knows this has already been aired and found bogus. He's just desperate, and couldn't find anything else today.

-Martha

Ohio JOE said...

"all of America had money invested in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac" except for the smart ones.

Terrye said...

Ohio Joe...a lot of people had money invested in Fannie Mae and did not even know it..

Terrye said...

There was a report on NBC tonight that Gingrich might have some tax trouble...oh well, this is Newtie we are talking about and it is unnecessary for him to live by the same rules as we mere mortals.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, RW

This is another non-story. Everytime Romney is accused with something unethical or immoral, it always pans out clean.

Newt Gingrich is the only unethical and morally deprived candidate running.

The Republican party has flip flopped on its values and is currently supportng Newt.

Call it progress.

Call it the new progressive Republican party, headed by Newt.

Right Wingnut said...

According to Boston Globe, these were known to Mitt, unlike some of his investments. Furthermore, Fannie & Freddie make up more than half of the fund's holdings.

It's not illegal or unethical but it will be seen as hypocritical by many.

Right Wingnut said...

He "took" $50,000 in profits from his Fannie and Freddie holdings last year alone. Perhaps he should give it back. LOL

Jeannetta said...

It's his OWN money, not yours and mine; big difference. Newt got rich on tax payer funds.

Anonymous said...

You got no story here.

If you're bored, just do a repost of that old Romney story where he put his dog on the roof of his car. Everybody else does.

Terrye said...

Right Wing Nut...why should he give it back? He made off an investment..he did not make 1.8 million lobbying against the efforts of reformers in his own party who wanted Congress to exercise more oversight of the agency.

And btw, there were a lot of people who had money invested in GM too and they were not all responsible for bailing it out.

The amazing thing is Gingrich can kite checks and it is no big deal. He can lie, he can cheat and he can stab his own party in the back and all he gets from some brain dead people on the right is atta boy..but Romney is held to an entirely different standard..

The party has been taken over by political suicidal hypocrites.

Terrye said...

And so what if he knew it? It was not a crime for heavens sake..this is just so pathetic.

Anonymous said...

RW-So this is another red herring the Democrats and Newty are throwing out.
What do Newty and the Democrats have a difficult time in differentiating between a private investment and a public investment utilizing taxpayer dollars.

Romney's investment was in a blind trust for one thing, and it was his own money after taxes that was invested in the blind trust, that generated a return on his investment. The gain is then taxed at 15% because it is referred to as a capital gain.......Wow this is so immoral to make money from an investment.

It is that Evil Free Enterprise Beast that RW,the Democrats and Newty despise sooo much. Ha Ha Ha.

Lionhead said...

I'm going to make a comment here, and I hope it doesn't mysteriously float off into cyberspace. ;)

After reading everyone's comments & especially to those that say it is a non-issue, y'all haven't done your research and/or remember the issues involved in these bonds. So, I'll lay the case out to you.

First, it depends when Romney bought these bonds. Was it before the receivership of these agencies by the gov't or afterwards. If before, he took tremendous losses on them. If after, as I suspect, he made tremendous profits. I'm sure there are already folks from the DNC perousing this issue. The campaign issue is very clear here. I'm sorry that most of you either don't want to see it or want to deny it.

So, whom might know when the most favorable time to buy said bonds would be? Who might have such information from the US Gov't? Who manages Romney's personal finances including those mutual funds Sharpton refers to? Why it's an organization with the initials "GS." I think most of you can figure out just who that is.

Do your homework, find the facts!

Terrye said...

Facts...they don;t care about facts..the fact is Gingrich was on board when Carter voted to create the Dept of Education..he supported tax dollars for abortions..how many Republicans know these facts? And yet this kind of silliness gets circulated about Romney every day.

It does not matter when the stocks were bought. In fact there is a push by conservatives to privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac altogether eventually.

Anonymous said...

RW. Explain to me how this is hypocritical.

-Martha

Jerald said...

Rightwing Nut...

You have to refine your English before you go on the attack.

I know you are easily deceived, but after you put asside the innuendo that Sharpton is trying to create, this is the truth you can glean from his statement:

1. Romney invested $500,000 in a fund.
2. That fund invested some of its holdings in Fanny & Freddie.
3. Romney's earnings from his investment in this fund was $50,000.

Now Rightwing Nut, what we don't know, and what you should really look up if you cared (I know, you don't care. You only care that "Willard" is not nominated and that either Obama or Newt send us farther down the hell hole, but that's beside the point), is:
1. What fund was Romney investing in?
2. What kind of fund was it?
3. How much direct involvement does Romney have in selecting the fund's investments? (Probably none)
4. What are Romney's proceeds from that fund used for?
5. What is the total holdings of that fund?
6. What percentage of the fund's total holdings does Romney's $500,000 account for?
7. What percentage of the $50,000 Romney earned from the fund actually came from the Freddy & Fanny investment? (Probably negligible).
8. Is this really a story that makes Romney bad for the nomination?
9. Maybe Romney has a right to furious at Freddie Mac for wasting $1.6 million dollars on Newt...

Lionhead said...

Jerald, (my brother's name ;0) The answers you seek are here:

http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/candlook.php?CID=N00000286

Have a look for yourself & find the facts.

Now, I guess I have to comment again... Romney is making 10% interest on these bonds a fact that would lead one to believe they were purchased cheaply as the normal coupon is between 4-5%. So, before you smokescreen the issue, just look at Romney's rate of return. ;)

Ohio JOE said...

"And yet this kind of silliness gets circulated about Romney every day." Waaaaa, poor baby, yet you guys did not stop being dishonest about every other candidate falsely accusing some of murder and adultery. Yet now, you complain that Mr. Romney is getting vetted all of a sudden. What comes around goes around. Your hatred for the people has finally come back to haunt you. Welcome to the monster you created.

Terrye said...

Ohio Joe:

I never accused anyone of murder and neither did Romney. But Gingrich was an adulterer, he was an adulterer when he was publicly lecturing Clinton for adultery..he did support tax payer money for poor women to get abortions too..now if that were Romney he would not get a pass.

This is not a case of what goes around comes around..this is a case of people attaching themselves to a candidate like Gingrich who has all kinds of baggage and then getting pissy when other people do not ignore it..it is also a case of people whining about the media picking on people like Sarah Palin and then cheering when someone like Rush Limbaugh cherry picks an interview done by Romney in a way that deliberately gives a false impression of what he said. When that happened to Sarah there was much crying and whining..but it is okay to do exactly the same thing to Romney. You are hypocrites.

Terrye said...

And this is not vetting. I know that the talk radio people are telling you that the establishment people are shoving Romney down your throats and now he is getting vetted. That is nonsense. It is just an excuse to go after Romney while at the same time they make excuses for someone like Gingrich.

Ohio JOE said...

'I never accused anyone of murder and neither did Romney." Then why the hell was Mr. Romney AWOL when the media accuse the Tea Party of the Tuscon massacre? You want us to defend Mr. Romney, but he did not want to defend the people.

You are the hypocrite. Your candidate has no been lied about nearly as much as Mrs. Palin or many other. BTW, where are all your White bimbos who false accused Mr. Cain? Yet you cry bigotry every day.

Ohio JOE said...

"It is just an excuse to go after Romney" So what is your excuse for going after everybody else. BTW talk radio, predicted your guy would lose Iowa while you thought you had everything in the bag.

Ohio JOE said...

"Rush Limbaugh cherry picks an interview done by Romney" Ah, but you guys claim not to do the same? Oh pleeeease.

Terrye said...

So now I am bimbo?

What are you talking about Tucson? What the hell does that have to do with anything? I mean that is so stupid. Romney did not call anyone a murderer..the fact that he did not capitalize on the tragedy for personal political gain does not mean he is a murderer or anything like that.


Btw, Newt Gingrich's defunct American Solutions is in tax trouble..that means Newt is.According to the IRS there was some funny business there. Now if this was Romney you would be all over it..but because it is Newt there will be charges that the horrid establishment is out to get brave Newtie.

So yeah, hypocrite is the word.

Right Wingnut said...

Lion head, I don't know when the funds were purchased, but I'll give you a hint. They weren't on his 2007 disclosure.

As I said, more than half of the fund's holdings are in Fannie and Freddie. In addition, the fund has large investments in many of the banks that received bailouts.

He went in and bought after the meltdown, like a good corporate raider would do. There's nothing unethical, or illegal about it, but some will see it in a negative light.

Terrye said...

Do we do the same? Really, not like you guys. when it comes to self righteous indignation the Romney are amateurs compared to the talk radio right who see themselves as perpetual victims..

Lionhead said...

RW, you have described the campaign issue spot on. ;) The downside is if Romney had "inside info" in his purchase. That raises the spectre of an inside trade. We shall see.

Right Wingnut said...

The Goldman Sachs CEO was in the room when they were negotiating TARP. Figure that one out.

Doug NYC GOP said...

RWN...today known as JACKASS,

The premise of the post is bullshot and just sets you up to look like an uneducated fool.

Now let me do you a favor, because I do like you and you need help.

This is how this investment works and where the REAL problem lies.

Millions of people, banks, pensions, charities etc. have dollars invested in these types of bonds. They do so because these bonds are invested in mortgages and provide a stream of income back on the funds invested, while keeping the prinicpal fairly stable.

Generally investments like this are lower risk in nature, because of the fairly steady market price and income stream.

People invest their money in them because they want their principal to remain fairly stable, while they earn a reliable interest rate, higher than a bank would pay. Very often people with retirtement dollars invest her in order to genrate a steady income.

The mortgage agency used to manage these funds in a very CONSERVATIVE manner with strict regulations about how they were granted.

The managing directors of Fannie and Freddie CHANGED those rules and regulations and managed the funds with very loose standards, resulting in people getting mortgages they couldn't afford over the long term.

The problem with the Fannie/Freddie mess is NOT with the people who invested money there, but with HOW those funds were managed.

There are two sets of victims in this mess:

1) the mortgage lendee who got in over head because he was provided the loan with less stringent rules

and

2) The INVESTORS, who due to the meltdown have seen either their capital put at greater risk or their income stream potentially reduced.

ROMNEY FALLS INTO THE SECOND GROUP!

This mess was caused by the managing directors and the people who ADVISED them.

You really have a lousy track record with these posts.

Right Wingnut said...

Doug, I'm very familiar with how they work, and why people invest in them. Thanks for the rant, though.

Doug NYC GOP said...

It was not a rant.

So if you understand how they work,where is the "scandal"?

Right Wingnut said...

Doug,

It doesn't need to be an actual scandal to be a "scandal." Haven't you learned that yet?

Teemu said...

Lionhead, actually at lowest the interest might have been 3%, not 10%, 15k/500k = 0.03, 3% percent interest.

"On his financial disclosure statement filed last month, Romney reported owning between $250,001 and $500,000 in a mutual fund that invests in debt notes of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, among other government entities. Over the previous year, he had reported earning between $15,001 and $50,000 in interest from those investments."

Doug NYC GOP said...

Backing down once again, I see.

That's your best move, Uncle.

Lame post and a waste of people's time.

Although it show again, how desperate and foolish you are.

Keep upholding those C4P standards.

Anonymous said...

Romney's a hypocrite. Period.

Stew said...

It's appalling how Romney manipulates his thrusts on various national issues particularly the housing sector. He should be ashamed of himself for what he did to the florida condo law for example, where he did not honor his words in terms of mortgage refinancing.