They had a bad year.
The New York Times reports:
The board, in a statement, said it was working with its regulatory
overseer, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to find a successor.
Freddie Mac, and its larger sibling, Fannie Mae,
were both taken over by the federal government in September amid losses
because of a decline in the value of their holding, receiving a
lifeline of $200 billion.
The resignation came a few days after
Freddie Mac said it needed at least $15.2 billion in government aid
because it lost nearly $59 billion last year as the foreclosure crisis
mushroomed. The company said on Thursday that it lost $25.2 billion, or
$4.47 a share, in the fourth quarter, compared with a loss of $3.6
billion, or $3.80 a share, a year earlier.
In a statement,
Freddie Mac said that Mr. Moffett indicated that he wanted to return to
a role in the financial services sector.
That last sentence is not supposed to be particularly ironic or humorous. But it's also pretty obvious that if you're working for Fannie or Freddie these days you're in your own sector. Not sure what it should be called. Probably the "continue to keep interest rates artificially low in hopes of continue to prop up housing prices" sector. It's related to the financial services sector, but it's quite the same thing.
