Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac: Investors Flee

The stocks plummeted as proposals to provide Federal support to the troubled government-sponsored mortgage brokers failed to reassure shareholders

by Jane Sasseen

It's not often that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke plays second fiddle when he makes his twice-yearly trip to Capitol Hill to outline his current outlook on monetary policy and the economy.

But with all eyes on the extensive proposals put forth on July 13 by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the Fed to restore confidence in Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), the struggling mortgage giants at the heart of the escalating credit crunch, much of the focus when the Senate Banking Committee met for Bernanke's testimony on July 15 came in the second act.

Bernanke testified for 90 minutes on everything from the risks facing the economy (he warned of "significant downside risks to the outlook for growth" even as the threat of inflation is growing) to his views on oil speculation (he doesn't think speculative activity or manipulation is a big cause of the recent runup in oil prices).

Stabilizing Move, or a Bailout?

The hearings then turned to the real heart of the matter: In a regulatory triple-play of sorts, Bernanke was joined at the Banking Committee hearings by Paulson and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox to argue for the package of recent proposals regulators have put forth to provide explicit Federal support to the troubled government sponsored enterprises (GSEs). (Fannie and Freddie are known as GSEs because of their unique status—while chartered by the Federal government to provide backing to the mortgage market, they're owned by public shareholders.)

At the core of those proposals, as outlined by Paulson, is a request that Congress grant Treasury a temporary increase in the credit line it can extend to the GSEs, as well as the ability to purchase equity in the firms should that prove necessary. The moves are designed to reassure bond and stock investors that Fannie and Freddie will have both the liquidity and the capital needed to weather the current crisis, key to getting the markets, and ultimately the economy, back on track. With the Treasury proposal in the works, the Fed also agreed to temporarily grant the GSEs access to the Fed's discount window, should they need emergency liquidity before Congress can authorize the Treasury moves. "The GSEs now touch 70% of new mortgages and represent the only functioning secondary mortgage market," Paulson told the senators. "The GSEs are central to the availability of housing finance, which will determine the pace at which we emerge from this housing correction."

But the proposals have already proven controversial. While backers hope the moves will end fears that losses on mortgage and mortgage-related securities will overwhelm the two critical firms—which together own or guarantee roughly half the mortgages in the U.S.—critics fear such action will open the door to a government-financed bailout that could ultimately cost U.S. taxpayers tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars. Critics also argue that regulators have been too quick to bail out Wall Street, a charge that Paulson, a former chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs (GS), tried to deflect. "Our plan is aimed at supporting the stability of financial markets, not just these two enterprises," he said.