Worst Idea of 2009

November 4, 2009 11:08pm by Barry Ritholtz

“Goldman Sachs is trying to arrange to buy tax credits from Fannie Mae. Obviously, it would buy them at a discount.

Goldman, you may recall, was saved with taxpayer money when the panic spread last year. A naïve person might think such a company would see a patriotic virtue in paying taxes.

Fannie Mae is currently a ward of the government. So this boils down to a proposal to pay Uncle Sam perhaps 15 cents to avoid paying 20 cents to Uncle Sam.

The gall involved in even proposing such a thing is awesome.

I could not possibly agree more — its simply insane . . .

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