We've long since passed the point of repetitiveness with Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) and its problems with various regulators. Today there was yet another shot from a regulator, this time the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO -- but to make it easier to remember, I might petition that it change its name to "Gordon"), calling on Fannie to adopt policies for banning falsified signatures on accounting journal entries.
So to make it easier to write further columns about regulators stepping on Fannie Mae's neck, I have put together a brief standardized form for future use, with apologies to Penguin Putnam: The Fannie Mae Mad Lib.
(For any of you unfamiliar with Mad Libs, why not try one online at the Penguin website?)
The Fannie Mae Mad Lib
Today the _______________ (regulator) __________________ (action verb) Fannie Mae over treatment of its ______________ (financial term) and requested additional information from the company.
Fannie Mae ______________ (verb) the regulator's request and stated that it has complied with all _________________ (plural nouns) regarding _______________(same financial term as above).
People familiar with the matter believe that the change will impact Fannie Mae's ___________(financial term) by ______________(verb) income by $___ (number) billion. An analyst with _________(proper name) & __________ (proper name) called the change "immaterial," and said that he places a Strong _____ (verb) on Fannie Mae stock.
Some investors have grown increasingly suspicious of Fannie Mae, certainly part of the reason the stock has dropped from a high of $79 to today's price of $____ (number).
That ought to cut down on the work next time regulators uncover yet another problem at Fannie Mae.
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Bill Mann owns no shares of any company mentioned in this article.
