John Carney reports on the unfathomable sums of money Freddie Mac loses on a daily basis – more than GM but less than AIG. – Ilene
Freddie Mac Lost $265 Million Every Day
Courtesy of John Carney at ClusterStock
Freddie Mac reported yesterday that its liabilities now exceed its assets, in part because the fair value of its loan portfolio declined by a massive $120 billion. It has said it will need to draw another $30.8 on the loan facility established to keep it afloat. All told it lost just a smidge under $24 billion in the fourth quarter.Those a mind-boggling numbers. Regular readers know we have a special way of breaking these down to more comprehensible numbers.
Freddie Mac Losses By The Calendar
Full Quarter: $24 billion
Each Day: $265 million
Each Hour: $11 million
Each Minute: $184,000
Each Second: $3000
Each and every day in the last quarter of 2008–including weekends Thanksgiving and Christmas–Freddie Mac lost $265 million. That beats out General Motors, which lost just $85 million a day. It means that every second, Freddie Mac lost more than two weeks worth of the average American’s income. Every 90 seconds, Freddie Mac lost as much as the average home price in the most expensive region in the country.
The main skill required to run Freddie Mac seems to be the ability to light three one thousand dollar bills on fire every second of every day. If these guys keep it up, they may even be able to get a job at AIG one day.
See Also: More articles on massive company losses, courtesy of John Carney, at ClusterStock
Freddie Mac Wants Another $30 Billion
Freddie Mac says it will need $30.8 billion in government aid after record losses…
Freddie Mac is at the center of much of Barack Obama’s home rescue plans. The company owns or guarantees over 20 percent of U.S. home loans. It reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $23.9 billion, or $7.37 a share. The results pushed the value of Freddie’s assets below its liabilities. That’s a long way of saying it’s insolvent.
