My name is Dan (the Monster-man) Reeder.   I’m a paper mache artist living in Seattle, Washington.    Welcome to my new blog.   Perhaps by the title you were expecting to see little paper mache piggies.   Sorry to disappoint you.   This blog is about pigs, but of the immoral, greedy, human variety.    This blog is dedicated to those who have enriched themselves (sometimes obscenely so) at the expense of everyone around them.   I see these people profiled on the news and I get angry.    But what am I to do?  With money comes power.  They have piles of money.  And they have armies of lawyers defending them.  

So what can any of us little people do?     I’ve decided to launch my own small protest with the skills I possess.    Since I’m a paper mache artist, it seemed appropriate to use my skills to portray these people as they really are.    Pigs.  Oink,Oink, Oink!

I intend to profile a new pig each month (believe me, there are plenty of them!).       Feel free to leave a comment.    By the way, I have nothing against rich people. Some of my best friends have been very successful.   I’m against ill-gotten gains.  I’m against pigs.     After you read the profiles, you tell me whether or not you agree.  

Franklin Raines tries to sneak off with piles of cash and gets caught.

Franklin Raines could be the poster child for the adage that “money corrupts completely”.  In 1996 Raines became President Clinton’s budget director.    Later, in1999, he became the CEO of Fannie Mae, the largest American financier and guarantor of home mortgages.   He was heralded as, “the first black man to head a Fortune 500 company.” So how did Franklin handle himself during his tenure at Fannie?    Well, to start with, he and his pig cohorts, the former chief financial officer, J. Timothy Howard; and the former controller, Leanne G. Spencer, cooked the books to insure huge performance bonuses.  Eventually these three little pigs had 101 charges filed against them by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. 

In the end, these three had to give back some of their ill-gotten gains as well as pay some fines.   Raines had to pay back $24.7 million, a $2 million fine, and give up company stock options worth $15.6 million.  So you might be thinking, “Yeah!! The system worked!!”    In fact, OFHEO officials declared victory against the forces of corruption. 

Well, not quite.  Considering that Raines made $90+ million between 1998 and 2004, $42.3 million in payback and fines doesn’t seem that harsh.  That still leaves this little pig with $47.7 million! Despite the government’s best efforts Franklin Raines walked away with a fortune.  He made out like the bandit that he is.   In fact, don’t doubt for a minute that Raines didn’t take home a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of office supplies while he was at it.  Never under estimate the power of greed.  

It’s such a terrible commentary.  Hundreds of thousands of Americans are left to suffer the effects of a recession.  Meanwhile, pigs like Franklin Raines swim in a sea of riches. 

Now I must add an aside here.   As the Fannie fraud was becoming apparent, attempts were made to connect Raines with then candidate Obama.   While the fake emails and rumors were eventually debunked, apparently there remain idiots who believe the lies simply because both men are African American.  

Aside number two; whenever I write about these pigs, I’m blown away by how many other pigs surround the ones I’m profiling.   I could have written a book about the former Fannie CEO s and CFO s, not to mention all of the politicians who received campaign contributions from these executives to look the other way while the money was swirling.    It all stinks. 

Ahhh, so many pigs, so little time!

Video- See Franklin Spin