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11 Feb 2011 10:57

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Biz: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac getting kicked onto the curb?

  • This is a plan for fundamental reform — to wind down the GSEs, strengthen consumer protection and preserve access to affordable housing for people who need it.
  • Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner • Explaining how he wants to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two government-owned mortgage-securities organizations which helped fuel the housing bubble and were ultimately felled by the subprime mortgage crisis. Geithner laid out three different ways to solve the Fannie and Freddie problem, all of which involve getting them off the taxpayer’s dime. The solutions rank in varying degrees – one is completely privatized with government guidance, one plays middle ground, and the third is a more-regulated version of Fannie and Freddie. The current organizations would pay off their massive debts, though. source

11 Feb 2011 10:37

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Biz: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac: When does “bailout” become “sinkhole”?

  • $153
    billion
    the amount that taxpayers have lost already on bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
  • $68
    billion
    the amount expected to fall into that money pit by 2013 – a $211 billion grand total source

03 Aug 2010 10:09

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U.S.: In Louisiana, half a dozen teens drown in underwater sinkhole

  • Unfortunately, I’m afraid, and it’s with a heavy heart, to report that we have pulled so far (six) bodies from the river. … I can honestly say that in my 26 years of service I’ve never seen anything of this magnitude. And I hope I never see it again.
  • Shreveport, La. Fire Chief Brian Crawford • Describing the sinkhole that killed six people last night. (A seventh was rescued.) The 18-foot hole sucked in the teenagers, who largely didn’t know how to swim and had otherwise been in the shallow water. A friend of the families, Marilyn Robinson witnessed the deaths: “None of us could swim. They were yelling ‘help me, help me. Somebody please help me.’ It was nothing I could do but watch them drown one by one.” Harrowing. source

23 Jul 2010 11:23

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31 May 2010 20:53

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12 May 2010 10:37

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World: Holy crap: Sinkhole kills entire family in Quebec

  • strangeness The family was just at home minding their own business when the ground below their home started to fall apart in a mudslide.
  • sadness A day later, after a crew of rescuers tried to help, four people – the entire family – was found dead inside the home. source

13 Apr 2009 23:58

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Biz, Tech: YouTube is a giant sinkhole for money

  • $470 million in anticipated losses in ’09. Whoa. source