Monday, July 14, 2008

U.S. Taxpayer Bailout of China Over Fannie Mae

Oh what a tangled web. From Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis:

If the US bails out Fannie Mae bonds as suggested in We're All Homeowners Now, Nationalization of Fannie, Freddie Unavoidable, inquiring mind just might be wondering "Who is the biggest beneficiary?".

It's a good question too. Please consider Chinese Government is Top Foreign Holder of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Bonds.

As politicians call for taxpayer bailouts and a government takeover of troubled mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, FreedomWorks would like to point out that a bailout is a transfer of possibly hundreds of billions of U.S. tax dollars to sophisticated investors and governments overseas.

The top five foreign holders of Freddie and Fannie long-term debt are China, Japan, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, and Belgium. In total foreign investors hold over $1.3 trillion in these agency bonds, according to the U.S. Treasury's most recent "Report on Foreign Portfolio Holdings of U.S. Securities.">>>MORE