NYSE to Let Fannie Mae Stock Keep Trading

Forbes reports:

The New York Stock Exchange is allowing Fannie Mae's stock to continue to trade despite the embattled mortgage giant's failure to file its annual report on time, the company said Friday.

The NYSE has officially classified Fannie Mae as a late filer and could if it wished delist the stock of the government-sponsored company, which is struggling to untangle its accounting in an $11 billion scandal. The company, which finances one of every five home-mortgage loans in the United States, hasn't filed an earnings report since late 2004. Its latest annual report was due in March 2005.

In a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has ordered the company to restate earnings back to 2001, Fannie Mae said the stock exchange had granted its request to continue to list its stock. Continued listing will be subject to quarterly review by the NYSE, which will monitor the company's progress toward restating its finances.

As we've said before,who else could get away with this? Does the Fannie Mae board of directors have brokerage accounts at Goldman Sachs? We don't know but since Goldman owns all those seats at the NYSE it's a reasonable question to ask.Also are any children of Fannie Mae executives employed at Goldman Sachs?? Does family members of Goldman Sachs employees work at the Fannie Mae foundation? We throw out these questions because nobody and we mean nobody gets away with not filing earnings reports and stays listed.Is this going to be Bernanke's first scandal he has to deal with? We don't know but it's a question to ponder.Does the NYSE realize that the integrity of the stock exchange is put in jeopardy when a shameless quasi-monopolist is allowed to historically blackout their earnings???