Over the weekend, we all saw the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by the government. This is truly scary when looking at the bigger picture. The takeover, at best, is terrible economic policy. At worst, it is reminiscent of socialism. Many of the media outlets are reporting a number of $200 billion to bailout Freddie and Fannie. This is only a half-truth though, as the $200 billion figure is what is being spent today to bail them out. Some economists believe that over time, this figure can jump up to $1.6 trillion, if not more. Suddenly, the aft repeated quote of $10 billion per month in Iraq doesn't sound like much... I've got a question in all of this for those with common sense - Why haven't the CEOs of Fannie and Freddie gone to jail yet? Does anyone recall Enron and Ken Lay? Fannie Mae cooked the books, so it appeared they were making budget. This was however a sham so that the top executives were able to claim a large bonus. After the bonuses were received, they "magically" discovered that the budget needed to be readjusted and it turns out, they didn't make the budget. Fannie Mae was fined $400 billion for cooking the books in 2004. They over estimated their earnings by $6.3 billion. Compare that to the evil Enron, who over estimated their earnings by a paltry $567 million. At the time this occurred, the CEO of Fannie Mae was Franklin Raines. How corrupt was Raines? While being investigated by the SEC for cooking the books, he decided it was time to take an early retirement. However, he wasn't completely off the hook - rather than going to jail for his actions, he bought his freedom for a $24.7 million settlement. However, here's the kicker - Of that $24.7 million, $15.6 million was in stocks, but was from stock at the time when the transgressions occurred. What that means is that he was paying $15.6 million of stock valued at $77 per share, but the stock was now worth $9 per share. So - that money was $15.6 million in 2004 - which was now devalued to only $1.8 million. In addition, Raines paid another $2 million, but surprise surprise, that was covered by the insurance policy to protect against things like that. He also donated an additional $1.8 million in stock, but another shocker - It wasn't even his. He was involved in a lawsuit with Fannie Mae, in which both sides claimed the stock was rightfully theirs. Finally, he agreed to part with $5 million in unspecified benefits...which really shouldn't be unspecified since they are public funds! By the way, Raines still gets a monthly pension of nearly $114,000 per month, for life, and then if necessary, for the life of his wife. So where was the media in all of this? When the Enron Scandal hit, the following nine months saw over 3000 stories in the media about it. In comparison, Fannie Mae has a total of 37 stories in that same time frame. A greater than 80:1 ratio in news coverage, but only about 1/19th the accounting errors. This however, doesn't fit in with the agenda to praise publically run programs and criticize the capitalist system. There was however one exception to this, and that is the Wall Street Journal. Think of how this bodes for society as a whole - if you succeed, the government will classify you as being too successful, and implement a windfall profit tax on you as we've heard will happen to the oil companies. However, if you fail, the government will bail you out, thus giving no incentive to improve. Ironically, this exemplifies one of the major themes of Barack Obama's political message. Obama constantly tells us how hard it is to succeed in this environment. However, if things are so bad, how was he able to succeed? On the contrary, if someone with a background and life story as his, with a father from Kenya and being raised by a single mother can succeed, then this only proves the American dream exists. Barack Obama knows this, but as a very intelligent politician, he also knows that he can't win the election unless he can convince the American people they can't succeed as he did.