cut to the chase, there's a rumor today that obama could pursue a recess appointment with fhfa, jimmyand then seek to pursue this, spring a $1 trillion scaled debt refinancing in the housing market, had the mortgage traders here in new york all squirrely. mortgage bonds trading around. and this would obviously be seen as both a political maneuver, a maneuver that would, by the way, definitely accelerate the economy in the short-term, by dropping the average monthly payments, and raise the ire of i have to imagine not only everybody on wall street, but the entire tea party/conservative side of the aisle, no? >> well, i'm going to ask you permission to wear two hats on this one. >> go for it. >> first and foremost, the president of the united states is dead wrong to appoint everybody when the senate is in pro forma recess. it's not in recess and i've said this before on your show and i'll keep saying it, i do not like when presidents of either parties do these kind of things. >> noted. >> that being said, if the president of the united states appoints a top regulator for fannie and fred

>> the fhfa is essentially the board of directors.decisions that freddie mac. what that means is i think that fhfa has a conflict of interesting because they are both the regulator and the owner and they have two different interests. >> smells like a congressional hearing is on its way. what kind of reaction are you get so long far? >> my partner, chris arnold, and npr are reporting on that today. you suspect congress is going to react strongly to this. we don't have anything now. >> jesse, always great to see you. thanks so much. >> let have a quick look at where we are on the s&p 500. heat map. it's an important day for the market. we've not witnessed these sorts of moves really this year. the bulk of that index is in negative territory. and we'll talking about the most hotly anticipated ipo, facebook, who is set to be the chief beneficiary. [ male announcer ] let's level the playing field. take the privileged investing tools of wall street and make them simple, intuitive, and available to all. distill all that data. make informatio

the head of the fhfa -- who, by the way, has never been confirmed, so he is acting, which is anotheral mandate from congress to conserve value. the truth is, as we all know, that fannie and freddie our nationalized companies, basically, and the only shareholders that matter are the u.s. taxpayer, and that law should be rewritten. i do not think it would take more than a one-paragraph bill to put it into the wall, that their job in taking care of the red which will eventually be the demise of fannie and freddie -- there one objective should be to serve the citizens of the united states. i think that would help. >> a number of things, but we should, i think, start by saying there is no silver bullet that can fix the housing mess. it will, under all circumstances, be a long and drawn-out affair. but i think we can agree that to date, the program is intended to facilitate mortgage modification and refinancing has had disappointing take up rates. i think this disappointing rates are partly because of reservations on the lenders side to participate in these. so schemes that somehow broaden

when the law in 2008, establishing the fhfa, was passed, it provided for conservatorship of fannie and freddie if the worst happened. the worst did happen. they are now in conservatorship. it -- there are shareholders out there whose interests need to be protected, that we're conserving value. the head of the fhfa who has never been confirmed, is acting, which is another issue, is under a legal mandate from congress, from this body to conserve value. the truth is, as we all know, that fannie and freddie are nationalized companies basically and the only shareholders that matter is the taxpayers. i don't think it would need to be more than a one-paragraph law to take care of the rest, which will eventually be the demise of fannie and freddie, the one objective should be to serve the citizens of the united states, period. i think that would help. >> dr. prakken. >> a number of things. we should start by staying there is no silver bullet that can fix the housing mess. it will under all circumstances be a long and drawn out affair. but i think we could agree that to date the programs intend

the head of the fhfa -- who, by the way, has never been confirmed, so he is acting, which is another legal mandate from congress to conserve value. the truth is, as we all know, that fannie and freddie our nationalized companies, basically, and the only shareholders that matter are the u.s. taxpayer, and that law should be rewritten. i do not think it would take more than a one-paragraph bill to put it into the wall, that their job in taking care of the red which will eventually be the demise of fannie and freddie -- there one objective should be to serve the citizens of the united states. i think that would help. >> a number of things, but we should, i think, start by saying there is no silver bullet that can fix the housing mess. it will, under all circumstances, be a long and drawn-out affair. but i think we can agree that to date, the program is intended to facilitate mortgage modification and refinancing has had disappointing take up rates. i think this disappointing rates are partly because of reservations on the lenders side to participate in these. so schemes that somehow bro

fhfa is also an independent agency headed by a sole director subject to a gao audit and purposely notappropriations process. now, let's talk about what the purpose of the nomination hearing should be. richard cordray has spent his career in public service caring about people. q. has taken the time to understand and come up with the best solution for their problems. mr. cordray support small businesses and honest companies. he has been a member of a local chamber of commerce for 22 years. he believes in leveling the playing field such that small companies can compete fairly and that playing by the rules is good for business. i ask unanimous consent to include several letters of endorsement into the hearing record. mr. cordray also believes that people and corporations must be responsible for their own behavior, and if they act responsibly, they should get a fair shake. it is my hope that if confirmed, mr. cordray will use his knowledge and experience as law enforcement official and public servant to better protect american consumers to enhance the quality of our consumer financial mark

fhfa is also an independent agency headed by a sole director subject to a gao audit and purposely notchard cordray has spent his career in public service caring about people. q. has taken the time to understand and come up with the best solution for their problems. mr. cordray support small businesses and honest companies. he has been a member of a local chamber of commerce for 22 years. he believes in leveling the playing field such that small companies can compete fairly and that playing by the rules is good for business. i ask unanimous consent to include several letters of endorsement into the hearing record. mr. cordray also believes that people and corporations must be responsible for their own behavior, and if they act responsibly, they should get a fair shake. it is my hope that if confirmed, mr. cordray will use his knowledge and experience as law enforcement official and public servant to better protect american consumers to enhance the quality of our consumer financial markets. we have seen important nominations denied an up or down vote on confirmation. the stability of ou

many of my colleagues sent a letter to edward demarco, the acting director of the fhfa, asking for his decision to award bonuses at executives at fannie and freddie. in his response, mr. demarco echoed what is becoming an increasingly popular theme used to defend the big payouts. essentially, mr. demarco argues that in order to get the best people in place, we need to pay them outrageous amounts of taxpayer dollars. i don't buy that argument. it's ridiculous to tell the american taxpayer, look, we lost hundreds of billions of your money so we need to pay these smart guys millions of dollars of year -- your money so that we don't lose the rest of your money. the american people are smart enough to see through that sham logic and they are angry. as i previously stated on the senate floor, i find it hard to believe that we can't find talented people with the skills necessary to manage fannie and freddie for good money, $900,0 $900,000, without the incentive of multimillion-dollar bonuses. there are many examples of intelligent, well-qualified, patriotic individuals working in our federal