UPDATE 1-Freddie Mac seeks $500 mln more from taxpayers

[OhioChick]

Source: Reuters

Thu Feb 24, 2011 4:47pm EST

Feb 24 (Reuters) - Mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB) on Thursday asked for an additional $500 million in taxpayer aid after reporting its sixth straight quarterly loss.

The second-largest U.S. residential mortgage funds provider reported a loss of $113 million in the fourth quarter, a tiny fraction of the double-digit billions the firm lost in the quarters immediately after the government seized it more than two years ago.

Including the latest request, Freddie Mac will have received more than $64 billion in direct aid from the government. The fourth-quarter loss, about $0.53 per share, includes a $1.6 billion dividend payment the company paid to the government.

The U.S. Treasury took control of Freddie Mac and its larger sister entity, Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB), at the height of the financial crisis in September 2008 as losses mounted from mortgages gone bad.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/24/usa-housing-gses-idUSN2430067320110224

[defendandprotect]

1. We need to take this thing over completely and end any privatization --

[DeadEyeDyck]

2. KnR

[Angry Dragon]

3. I will not be happy until I see a lot of fraudsters in jail

[PoliticAverse]

4. The bill for the banker bailout isn't fully paid yet... n/t

[truthisfreedom]

5. no.

screw 'em.

[Yupster]

6. The worst part is

that with 4 % mortgages, we're blowing the same bubble up that burst three years ago.

In the long run, a bank can't make money at 4 %. Sometime over the next 15 years, the bank will have to pay 6 % for its money (CD rates), and will only be getting 4 % and here we will go again.