| Atana - don't mean to quibble - but fannie and freddie are overseen by OFHEO -and not the SEC (although the SEC has many a hand in is SPE investments, of which there are too many) and it has been a difficult relationship - one that in my view OFHEO has been on the right side on - they were particularly strident about Fannie's accounting chicanery - but one must question OFHEO's effectiveness here. They have been quibbling about single digit billion dollar accounting problems when both organizations are now (practically speaking) levered 50 to 1. This massive amount of leverage is the problem - no business, even one government sponsored, can consistently survive in this leveraged state. Sallie Mae is overlevered too, so the concern about Sallie is valid, although I don't think they are in the same extreme situation as fannie and freddie. |