Fear, greed and tears

"The Federal Reserve cut a short-term interest rate yesterday to try to keep problems in the housing and mortgage markets from dragging the nation into recession, but Wall Street judged the move as too timid and financial markets tanked. "-Washington Post

Only on Wall Street can good news be looked on as bad news because greed seems to know no bounds. Meanwhile:

"The chief executives for two of the nation's dominant mortgage-finance companies traveled to Wall Street yesterday and delivered competing words of regret for having to take painful steps to shore up their businesses.
The two government-chartered firms recently cut the dividends they pay shareholders and borrowed billions of dollars of relatively costly capital to stay in compliance with regulatory requirements and ride out the turmoil in the housing market.
"We wanted to dilute the common shareholders like we wanted to shoot ourselves in the head with a gun," Richard F. Syron, Freddie Mac chairman and chief executive, told a gathering of investment analysts.
"I wanted to cut off both my arms, and both my legs, and my head and my kidney," Fannie Mae chief executive Daniel H. Mudd said later in the day. "

TRANSLATION: We felt bad all the way to our second homes.