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Back when the mortgage industry began melting down, there was a strong call for the federal government to get out of the housing business…the government's two big home finance departments, known by the acronyms Fanne Mae and Freddie Mac…never have made direct loans to consumers, but instead guarantee the paper for the banks that do, then Fannie and Freddie package the loans as investment securities, charging investors a premium for the guarantee that their bonds will be safe.

Back in 2008, it looked very shaky for Freddie and Fannie as 170 billion in Tarp money was shuttled around the country to keep those agencies afloat. Well slowly, with interest rates near all-time lows, hiring improving, and the housing market starting to roll again because of pent up demand, Freddie and Fannie look to be solid investment vehicles again. Freddie has reported a 4 billion dollar quarter AND HAS been in the black for the last 6 quarters. It’s so flush it will pay the government a 7 billion dollar dividend next month with all profits going directly to Uncle Sam until that outstanding debt is repaid. The fact that prices are rising means fewer delinquent loans but Freddie’s profitibiity may have its limits - even though interest rates are a bargain lending standards have become much more stringent, meaning the poll of potential mortgage holders is much lower. Freddie is still about 100 billion in the hole to his Uncle Sam - ah that would be those of us paying taxes, but while in a comeback, there's still plenty of room for growth and perhaps over time, full restitution by Freddie Mac. All good as long as the greed factor can be kept in check - as long as underwriters pay attention to a borrower's debt-to-income ratio. As long as Freddie remains vigilant and transparent. If Freddie's quarterly profit trend continues, it would be a refreshing performance by a much maligned govenment agency. In fact, the administration says, if freddie keeps his nose clean taxpayers could actually see everything paid back and a 50 billion dollar profit by 2023.

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It's amazing how times change. Some 40 years ago, with George Mc Govern running a hopeless campaign to unseat Richard Nixon, some of the President's men...apparently lacking the confidence of pollsters, staged a dumb burglary at Democratic Party Headquarters in Washington's Watergate building complex. The crime was more misdemeanor than felony in the hardball world of Big Time politics---but the coverup---which stretched right to the Oval Office and the zealous investigation by a pair of hungry Washington Post reporters---which riveted the nation....cost Richard Nixon the presidency, and for years, shattered America's view of politicians in general, Richard Nixon and The Republicans in particular.

For a while that due diligence that made Woodward and Bernstein household names, also made them role models for a generation of journalists. Then something happened.

Somewhere between the toothless impeachment of Bill Clinton and the campaign that elected Barack Obama---American journalists had a collective labotomy. Where is the investigative hunger now, when all signs point to another high level coverup...this one directly tied to the State Department and perhaps the White House.

The Bengazi story, which may finally get a wake up call with today's
congressional oversight committee hearing, is to any one following it, shameful if not criminal.

Maybe Hillary Clinton was suffering from mind numbing jet lag as she raced around the globe visiting nations we hardly deal with, to become history's most traveled Secretary of State. Clearly the ball was dropped in Bengazi and like Watergate the coverup looks worst.

The U-S reportedly spent a billion dollars aiding the rebels who finally overthrew and killed the dictator Moamar Khadaffy....in 2011...many Americans couldn't manage to send the Khadaffy clan flowers...considering his fingerprints on the Lockerbie bombing..which ushered in the moder era of terrorism...and no doubt planted seeds in the minds of the 9-11 terrorists...But Khaddaffy claimed and later evidence shows that the rebels were largely led by Al Queda...So---let's recap...we overthrow one enemy...to support a worse enemy----and on the anniversary of 9-11...with Al Queda factions running the show...Hillary and her minions reject requests for help and more security from Ambassador Christopher Stevens...which gets him and 3 other Americans killed. Then...compounding a horrible mistake....she lies about....and someone high up the food chain concocts some story about a rag tag bunch of militants storming the embassay because they were insulted by a movie. Please.

The testimony this week comes from Gregory Hicks  the number 2 state department official in Bengazi....WHO IS EXPECTED TO say in no uncertain terms that the state department erred badly and then lied about a terrible mistake. Once upon a time bad judgement  AND a coverup  would be enough to probably shame the president into resignation and make Hillary Clinton as electable as Charles Manson...but this is 2013..when anonymous Twitter feeds pass for journalism...when reporters would rather make room on Mount Rushmore for Barack Obama...then dare expose flaws and perhaps crimes in the administration....speaking of passes....the guilty will probably get them again.

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I had a nice briefing on the Sacramento housing market from some real estate pros who are right in the thick of it----all of a sudden...homes are selling briskly...folks are finding out that they're piece of the American dream is often worth more than they think....and the word equity...was being thrown around...well it is good news for a region and an industry that got crushed by greedy bankers and competitive brokers just a few years ago----as I sat there in a conference room in 2013---memories came flooding back...

Back in 2000, when things were pretty good unless you had invested your life savings in certain tech stocks, my wife and i bought what we thought was our dream house and our last house…a big post modern colonial on an acre of land bordered by the 15th hole of the rock hill country club. On long island .it sounds silly know, but i was kind of proud that i had qualified for a mortgage with Washington Mutual, then one of the nations most ubiquitous banks, but a lender that supposedly dealt with a paper..the best qualified borrowers. I had a good friend who helped process the loan, which could have been tricky because i was freelancing at the time….working for everybody from CBS to Snickers…yeah that was my voice on their commercials for 5 years. One month---when the checks came in a brisk pace and we were kind of flush, I sent in two months of mortgage payments. Note to listeners. Don’t ever do that. It makes the heads of pointy headed bank processing people explode. For months, the bank was convinced that I hadn’t made two mortgage payments, insisting I had only made one and through the rest of the cash against the principle. Late notices clogged my mail box…angry collection morons threatened foreclosure unless I  caught up after about a dozen phone calls to assorted customer service cretans….who toiled in ignorance from Milwaukee to for all I know Bangladesh, I decided to go to the top. I wrote a letter to WaMu CEO Kerry Killinger. Amazingly, he had a brain and figured out exactly what i had done and even credited my second payment and sent me a letter of apology. I was delighted and thought Kerry Killinger was just aces. One of my character flaws is a i trust almost everyone until they prove they can’t be trusted----which isn’t always good business.  Not long after Killinger's letter arrived---my mortgage was sold--to a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs this morning I read that the hammer is coming down on Killinger who was run out of the executive suite in Seattle…after regulators learned he was running a  mortgage ponzi scheme….putting good loans on the books and packaging the bad ones and selling them off to unsuspected investors looking for a sexy return…when all was said and done…WaMu collapsed under the weight of all those junk mortgages, and Killinger and his fellow bank executives were accused of cooking the books and giving loans to anyone with ten dollars and an expired fishing license..all in an effort to boost profit numbers and their own bonus numbers. WaMu pedaled my loan to a Texas bank later owned by Goldman Sachs…the outfit that supposedly came up with the idea of moving toxic security packages in the first place. Pretty incestuous business.

How mad is the government at Kerry Killinger? It’s taking the unprecedented step of suing the disgraced banker and his wife….who apparently holds most of his assets in trust. The government says it will leave the Killingers alone once it collects 900 million dollars…about the gross domestic product of some third world countries..and the amount it figures Killinger stole from WaMu customers….and I thought he was a good guy….as Dan Rather used to say…if your momma tells you she loves you…you get a second source.