Fannie Mae conducted one of its regular "benchmark note" auctions today. Here is the relatively non-descript Reuters report.
The spread over Treasuries was 122bps.
In the old days when Fannie debt was explicitly not backed by Treasury it was about 60bps or less.
The US Government has made it clear that it backs Fannie - so this extra-wide spread is surprising...
Unless people no longer trust the US Government.
John
PS. The investment implications are not good. The only plausible buy case for Fannie at the moment is that its not much to pay for a franchise with a US Government guarantee. If nobody trusts the guarantee there is no franchise...
The Market Ticker has made a comment on the same spread, which I found entertaining. Everyone can assess by themselves is this the right way of thinking.
ReplyDeletehttp://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/539-The-Real-Story-Behind-Freddie-Macs-NY-Game.html
P.S. Thank you for a good blog and excellent analysis
Re: trust in the US govt --- see sov CDS spreads.
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