WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE

Welcome to the new, socialized mortgage banking system of the United States of America. If you're left leaning, you're probably thinking, finally, the government controls everything! Let's take a tally: Uncle now owns most of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their $5.2 trillion in guarantees/portfolios. Uncle owns 80% of American International Group's $70 billion or so in "credit default swap" contracts on subprime bonds. (This is not a good thing to own.) Uncle also owns 80% of AIG outright (a $1 trillion company) including a once-top-ranked mortgage insurer, United Guaranty. Uncle owns AIG's two mortgage banking subs, which were shrinking anyway, so this isn't a big deal, in the scheme of things. Uncle owns $30 billion in Bear Stearns' risky bonds. According to reporting done by National Mortgage News' Brian Collins, Treasury soon will buy $10 billion in MBS to add liquidity to the market - plus Fannie and Freddie are actively buying. Meanwhile, Congress, Treasury and the Fed's Ben Bernanke are going to write legislation to create a "Mortgage RTC." This strain of the RTC will buy (you got it) mortgages and bonds no one else wants. Now that Uncle owns Fannie and Freddie, they can call the shots on foreclosures. You might say Uncle Sam is "the buyer of last resort" for all things mortgage. Sounds crazy doesn't it? Well, it's here. What does the stock market think of all this? They love it! On Thursday and Friday the Dow Jones shot up almost 800 points! Of course, the ban on short selling probably helped a bit. Where do we go from here? It's the Wild (socialized) West