Mark Calabria, the new head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, testifies on Capitol Hill in 2013 when he was with the Cato Institute. By Renae Merle Renae Merle Reporter covering white-collar crime and Wall Street Email Bio Follow April 22 at 2:20 PM For years, the chief executives of two giant government-controlled companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have operated under a strict constraint — they can’t be paid more than $600,000 a year.
“Treasury believes that compensation packages for ... executives should reflect fiscal discipline in light of their conservatorship.”At Fannie Mae, five executives earned more than $2 million each last year, while four executives at Freddie Mac earned more than $3 million, according to data compiled by Equilar, a research firm. The total amount spent on salaries for the top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac increased 31 percent and 4 percent last year respectively, according to the data.
The debate comes as the Trump administration has prioritized finding a way to release the companies from a decade of government custody and amid a growing debate around high CEO salaries. For critics of the new pay deals, it is also a reminder that regulators tasked with coming up with rules to rein in Wall Street pay after the global financial crisis have, so far, failed.
Lawmakers also considered requiring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives be paid in line with federal workers, but that was abandoned in favor of just capping the salary of the CEO at $600,000 -- nearly twice the top government salary. That argument has been unconvincing to lawmakers and consumer advocates who say the companies are still benefiting from the backing of U.S. taxpayers. If they run into financial trouble, taxpayers are still on the hook for bailing them out. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Thom Tillis have introduced legislation to block the new pay arrangements.
Trump thought Fannie Mae was the name of another porn star he might have shacked up with so he decided to them dodge the cap.
Hmmm ALEC?
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