OF THE
TIMES
I need to ensure that the companies have people with the skills needed to manage the credit and interest rate risks of $5 trillion worth of mortgage assets and $1 trillion of annual new business that the American taxpayer is supporting. I have concluded that it would be irresponsible of me to risk this enormous contingent taxpayer liability with a rapid turnover of management and staff, replaced with people lacking the institutional, technical, operational, and risk management knowledge requisite to the running of corporations with thousands of employees and more than $2 trillion in financial obligations each.Yes, the big bonuses are necessary to attract the best management, like the kind that lost $5.1 billion in the third quarter for Fannie Mae and requested for $7.8 billion in bailout money, or the kind that lost $4.4 billion in the same quarter for Freddie Mac and asked for $6 billion in taxpayer money. The nearly $14 billion combined is on top of the two firms' request for $6.6 billion in bailout cash in the second quarter and, lest we forget, the $170 billion from their 2009 bailout. Yes, that kind of talent.