Recently, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., sort of strongly suggested that the Obama administration hire more accountants in order to handle the investigative workload pending from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which he will serve as chair.
Issa plans to conduct oversight hearings in areas such as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, stimulus-related spending, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the foreclosure crisis, and what he called the "impact of government hyperregulation on job creation."
And for all that, the line at the CPA hiring hall forms to the right.
I've already chronicled in this space, as have many others, what an inarguable disaster the Home Affordable Modification Program has been, the $30 billion foreclosure prevention plan that apparently had the effect of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. So there's probably little more that Issa's committee could uncover there.
But let's turn our attention to my favorite economic Gemini, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the entities that have already siphoned nearly $150 billion of taxpayer largesse just to keep them afloat.
In order to manufacture what it terms a "pro-business climate" the White House and its chief resident from Chicago has appointed Bill Daley - brother of outgoing Windy City Mayor Richard Daley - to replace Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff.
What may not be known to many is that Daley has served on the board of Fannie since 1993, appointed there by former President Clinton. Coincidentally, the former President also had tapped Emanuel to serve as a board member at Freddie Mac.
Now, I doubt many of you need a tutorial on what transpired accounting-wise at these patronage landfills and their culpability in the mortgage crisis, but it should be noted that the billion-dollar accounting frauds happened on their respective watches.
Recently, the Chicago Tribune detailed Emanuel's board stint at Freddie, a tenure where he strangely was not assigned to any of the company's working committees, but qualified him for some $380,00 in stock options not to mention a $20,000 annual fee for showing up at board meetings six times a year.
Now Emanuel is a candidate for the mayoralty of a certain large midwestern city.
Perhaps Issa and his soon-to-be-hired legion of CPAs should begin their oversight diggings at Fannie and Freddie.
I have a feeling this is going to take a while.
