NPR: Fannie And Freddie Got You Feeling Apocalyptic?

Planet Money

Fannie And Freddie Got You Feeling Apocalyptic?

Rob Paterson paints it black.

If the financial news has you feeling green around the gills, know that you're not alone.

Friend, social media guru and former investment banker Robert Paterson spies the worst in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac collapse. Paterson writes, "It is not a blip. It will get much worse. I say this because we have been here before. There is a pattern to what is going on."

He charts that pattern -- and I mean literally charts it -- back to the great European financial collapse of 1348. And we're sending a hug to Prince Edward Island, because whether he's right or wrong about our impending doom, he at least is also charting a solution.

Laura Conaway

10:19 AM ET | 09- 8-2008 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

I'm very tempted to get a copy of the David Hackett Fischer book, The Great Wave, that Robert Paterson cited, to better understand Fischer's thesis and the idea of price revolutions.

Sent by kwy | 10:37 AM ET | 09-08-2008

We shareholders will be wiped out with this takeover of Fannie and Freddie. I thought our legal system was a warranty and would prevent the government from steeling from the people. We would expect the nationalization of Fannie and Freddie to be dictated by dictatorial governments such as Cuba or Venezuela. Or is this government a national socialist one?

They are stealing from the rightful shareholders of the company. We trusted the government and their cronies. I am sure their profits will soar with this measure. This is a legal system that protects the little guy, it was anyway until this government came into office. And one thought they were conservative republicans... They is an act of thievery.

Sent by Maria Schneider | 2:17 PM ET | 09-08-2008

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