Corporate Social Responsibility - Would the model mean that Fannie Mae could be labeled an “honest” company? Why or why not?

Would the model mean that Fannie Mae could be labeled an “honest” company?  Why or why not?

   “During the Great Depression, as borrowers defaulted on mortgages and banks found themselves strapped for cash, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress created Fannie Mae in 1938 in order to buy mortgages from lenders, freeing up capital that could go to other borrowers.  Fannie Mae grew so large over the years that in 1968, with the pressures of the Vietnam War straining the national budget, President Lyndon Johnson took Fannie Mae's debt portfolio off the government balance sheet…” (Pickert, 2008).  Fannie Mae is not an honest company, they do not comply with the United States Government rules and regulations, it seems that they decide to do what they want at anytime and no one can tell them what to do.  During an incident with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), they wanted to get Fannie Mae to register their securities as many other organizations had done in the past but there were a few Congress persons that came out of the woodwork to rally around Fannie Mae and the SEC dropped the request for registration (Jennings, 2012, p. 129).

     Fannie Mae on its’ website describes themselves as a legitimate company who are honest and is there for the families that are not able to purchase a home and to all the other individuals that need assistance to keep their homes from being taken away from them due to not being able to pay their mortgage on time.  The company might have been an honest firm at one time but it seems that since the late 1990s until 2008 the company has been risking lots of money on bad investments and not complying with the laws of the United States Government.  It seems that the personnel at the very top of Fannie Mae’s organization should be concerned about the welfare of the firm and would look out for the companies’ best interest.  That was not the case here as for the personnel that have been in charge were more concerned about their next big bonus than what Fannie Mae really stood for, the company is not ethical at all by any means.

References

Jennings, Marianne M. (2012).  Business Ethics, Case Studies and Selected Readings.  Seventh Edition.

Pickert, Kate. (2008, July).  A Brief History of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Retrieved from Time, Business & Money.  http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0.8599.1822766.00.html