Ladenburg Thalmann analyst Dick Bove isn't known for harboring large reserves of goodwill for the financial sector, but Bove's latest assault is brutal even by his standards. Speaking on CNBC, Bove went after GSEs Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) and suggested that not only are they irrevocably burried in debt, but that they're both swimming with fraud and corruption:
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in my view are disasters. they were basically companies that were filled with fraud and mismanagement for the last five or six years. They have to be broken up, they have to be gotten rid of. I don't think there's any question about that, but it can't be done now and can't be done in a period of hysteria... What will the structure of the financial industry be in 2009, after congress gets finished with it? I think what you'll see is that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be gone.
