Fannie, Freddie Budget $210 Million On Bonuses, Draw Lawmakers' Fire

GODDAM IT!!!!

******

Fannie, Freddie Budget $210 Million On Bonuses, Draw Lawmakers' Fire

James Lockhart, director of the agency that regulates the firms, defended the move.

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 4, 2009; Page A12

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance companies under federal control, are planning to pay $210 million in retention bonuses to 7,600 employees over 18 months, the firms' regulator said yesterday.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency said $51 million in payouts were given to employees in late 2008 and the remainder will come this and next year. The information was contained in a letter to Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa.).

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's compensation plans drew scrutiny several weeks ago after American International Group paid $160 million in bonuses to members of the unit that brought the insurance giant down. The House passed legislation to significantly tax the AIG bonuses, though the measure has been stalled in the Senate.

Grassley and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) expressed concerns that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which received over $50 billion in taxpayer dollars, would be paying bonuses. Frank called for bonuses to be withheld. In an earlier letter to Frank, the FHFA said about 3,500 employees at Fannie were getting an average payment of $32,000 and 4,000 employees at Freddie were getting an average of $24,000.

The maximum bonus for any employee will be $1.5 million, the regulator said. Freddie's bonuses are going to 80 percent of its employees, while Fannie's are going to 61 percent of its employees.

Ninety-two Freddie employees will receive $100,000 or more in 2009 and 121 Fannie employees will get bonuses of $100,000 or more. The FHFA declined to name the recipients, citing privacy concerns.

At Fannie Mae, chief operating officer Michael Williams is in line for a $1.3 million bonus, according to regulatory disclosures. Deputy chief financial officer David Hisey is slated for $1.1 million, while executive vice presidents Thomas Lund, responsible for the mortgage business, and Kenneth Bacon, responsible for housing and community development, are each in line for $1 million.
ad_icon

Grassley criticized the bonuses yesterday.

-snip-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/03/AR2009040303061.html

That makes me feel a lot better....

Who made the decision to pay the bonuses? Didn't they have to get approval from the feds? If not, then it doesn't seem that they are under control at all.

We bust our humps to scrape by, my partner has not had a raise in 5 years, he had to take a 50% cut in pay, and practically no benefits when his job was outsourced.
I now can no longer work and am on a small disability check in short we are getting by on 40% of what we made in 2000. We count ourselves lucky that we have a roof (costing less than half of what we were paying in 2000 also). We have more room and almost 9 acres, and we are turning it to an ecofarm, slowly because there just isn't enough budget to make the improvements needed, this shoestring shit gets old especially when we see these f king criminal loan sharks bribe congress and then get $100,000 to million dollar+ bonuses.
When are we gonna get off up and go to WDC en masse and tell them we are mad as hell and aren't gonna take it any more?!
We have both decided to move our accounts out of B of A and Wachovia to a local credit union, we had reached that decision on Thursday when I found that I am being hit will $5 and $10 service fees amounting to about 50$ on my 'free' checking and savings accounts. No reason given for their customer service email and phone number being inoperative for about 3 months now.

could even be considered 'competent' or 'skilled' or even 'talented'. If these fucks that currently have these positions need to be bribed into continuing the same crappy job that they've been doing, then screw 'em.

We have a whole pool of talent out there just looking for work. It's called the American public. We need a national job agency who looks for qualified, decent, honest, and intelligent people to fill these positions!