The folks at the National Whistleblowers Center (yes, there is one) like to tell of Samuel Shaw and Richard Marven, two sailors who landed in the brig in 1778 in retaliation for blowing the whistle on the commander of the Continental Navy, who had “treated prisoners in the most inhuman and barbarous manner.” Their bravery was not in vain. In very short order, the Continental Congress enacted the new nation’s first whistleblower protection law. Now, some 223 years later, lawmakers are at it again. The latest effort is less heroic: …
U.S. taxpayers were reminded on Friday (and again this morning) that our long national Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac nightmare is far from over. On Friday, Fannie Mae requested another $5.1 billion in aid from the U.S. Treasury to keep its capital at acceptable levels, which would bring the total Treasury bailout of Fannie Mae to $104 billion, with only $14.7 billion being returned in the form of dividends. Then, this morning Standard and Poor’s downgraded Fannie and Freddie from AAA to AA+ following its downgrade of the entire federal …
