Fannie, Freddie executive pay and the STOCK Act

Getting back to the Occupy movement we started with and two stories about how things work in this country.

First of all, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-owned mortgage giants. Today the House Financial Services Committee voted to put a stop to the multimillion dollar bonuses Fannie and Freddie executives have been getting. I said government owned ’cause taxpayers bailed ’em out to the tune of $180 billion just as the financial crisis was getting going.

Also, if you happened to see “60 Minutes” this past Sunday and their story about how lawmakers can trade on pretty much any information they get — insider or not — you’ll be interested to hear the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2011, that is the STOCK Act — clever, huh? — was introduced in the Senate today.