(CBS/AP)
A top executive at Freddie Mac was found dead Wednesday morning in an apparent suicide, according to CBS affiliate WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C.
David Kellermann, the acting chief financial officer of the government-sponsored mortgage lender, was found in his home after his wife alerted Fairfax County Police to his suicide, reports WUSA.
David Kellermann, the acting chief financial officer of the government-sponsored mortgage lender, was found in his home after his wife alerted Fairfax County Police to his suicide, reports WUSA.
Here is his official bio. I infer from his relatively modest deferred compensation balance that he had not gotten Wall Street rich climbing the ladder at Freddie Mac.
The story mentions a wife. I guess I am hoping there are no young children involved.
Can I be the first to ask the question sure to be on most people's lips? Did he leave a suicide note?
Posted by: anduril | April 22, 2009 at 10:42 AM
Hmmm.
Conspiracy theorists in 1 .. 2 .. 3 ..
Posted by: memomachine | April 22, 2009 at 10:42 AM
Why? Why oh, why? How can it be THAT bad? Even if a few years in a country club prison loomed somewhere - is anything worth that? Is it worth missing out on your kid's life? Oh - it is so sad.
Posted by: Dorothy Jane | April 22, 2009 at 10:48 AM
Conspiracy theory? Hey, why not? I'll make another plug for a clever blog: Jack Bauer can't stop 'The Goldman Conspiracy': 10 reasons why Wall Street has absolute power over America's democracy
Here's the lead-in:
Posted by: anduril | April 22, 2009 at 10:53 AM
anduril, everyone who really understands it's all Adam Weishaupt's doing.
Posted by: Charlie (Colorado) | April 22, 2009 at 10:58 AM
Um "who really understands, knows".
See they've even gotten control of Typepad.
Posted by: Charlie (Colorado) | April 22, 2009 at 10:58 AM
Adam Weishaupt? Sorry, could you shed some more light on that for me?
Posted by: anduril | April 22, 2009 at 11:00 AM
anduril, try here.
Posted by: Charlie (Colorado) | April 22, 2009 at 11:08 AM
In the meantime, here's some good Earth Day reading.
Posted by: Charlie (Colorado) | April 22, 2009 at 11:08 AM
Thanks for the links, knucklehead.
"shed light" "illuminati"
Get it? No? Try googling "pun."
Posted by: anduril | April 22, 2009 at 11:13 AM
He had a 5 year old. And a really really big, really expensive house on a corner lot. SO he got the money somewhere. Maybe he inherited it. Maybe he was late on his mortgage.
Sad regardless.
Posted by: Jane | April 22, 2009 at 11:18 AM
Charlie,
Thanks for the link. I found this:
very entertaining.Farrell's Fantasy in MarketWatch contains this bit of drivel "Then during the market meltdown six months ago the $700 million personal fortune he built at Goldman", which seems to be contradicted by this Paulson files to sell $500 mln of Goldman stock story from - MarketWatch in 2006.
Good conspiracy raving should not be so susceptible to easy disproof of a salient point. I have no doubt that GS rents pols wholesale but so do their competitors. JPM just sits, quietly burping in the background as it digests its "take" from last years economic adjustment. I believe it beat GS, in total, by a considerable margin.
Posted by: Rick Ballard | April 22, 2009 at 11:27 AM
"shed light" "illuminati"
Ah, crap.
Sorry, I've Goethe do better.
Posted by: Charlie (Colorado) | April 22, 2009 at 11:30 AM
Really sad.
Posted by: Porchlight | April 22, 2009 at 11:30 AM
Not bad. In fact, I LIKE IT!
Posted by: anduril | April 22, 2009 at 11:40 AM
What did he know that we don't know yet?
Posted by: bad | April 22, 2009 at 12:12 PM
ABC is reporting that he hanged himself in his basement.
LUN
Posted by: bad | April 22, 2009 at 12:27 PM
If I was ever going to kill myself, hanging would be one of my last choices. Almost as bad as (drowning or suffocating yourself). And in a basement it would be slow since you wouldn't have any height to fall.....
So I would like o hear more...
Posted by: PMII | April 22, 2009 at 12:39 PM
Whatever happened, it's a terribly sad thing. He was inside the beast for 16 talented capable years in key positions to know where the bodies were, and was certainly around enough trouble to get slimed by it. A good lawyer could have negotiated an outcome that would have looked more like the Michael Fasdow deal than what happened to Lay and Skilling. Certainly gives me one more reason to dislike Barney Frank, Gorelick, Rahm Emannuel and parasites like them. People forget the bitter price paid by everyday folks working in institutions plagued by corruption, duplicity and predatory management.
Posted by: Plutarch | April 22, 2009 at 12:49 PM
WEll since he was the CFO of the mortgage sector I'm not all that sure he was an "everyday folk".
Posted by: Jane | April 22, 2009 at 12:56 PM
So sad.
I would never kill myself because there is just no way to guarantee you'll end up dead in a flattering position.
I remember when everyone thought Bush had offed that poor guy at Enron that killed himself.
Posted by: MayBee | April 22, 2009 at 01:07 PM
One can only hope someone other than his wife or child was the one who discovered his body.
Posted by: bad | April 22, 2009 at 01:23 PM
It's always the wife or kids that find the body in a home suicide. This is incredibly sad for anyone and should not be open to random speculation.
I had a neighbor that did the exact thing. Everyone was shocked, nobody knew why. His wife told us that he fought depression for years, he had sought treatment and was on medication. But each night he would fight his demons and try to justify living another day. Inexplicably, a successful business, loving wife and two children weren't enough.
Posted by: jfh | April 22, 2009 at 02:04 PM
My neighbor in HK committed suicide by throwing himself out the window of the apartment below mine.
My friend was the first to find him, when she heard the awful noise and looked out her 1st floor window.
There is no good person to find a suicide. It is so irresponsible.
Posted by: MayBee | April 22, 2009 at 02:19 PM
Was he Vince Fostered or did he Vince Foster himself?
Posted by: ben | April 22, 2009 at 02:28 PM
jfh, some home suicides are discovered by domestic help, home repair contracters, extended family, etc.
Depends on the degree of planning involved.
Posted by: bad | April 22, 2009 at 02:28 PM
'If I was ever going to kill myself, hanging would be one of my last choices."
I read an interesting article where they polled survivors who jumped off the Golden Gate bridge. All of them said that on the way down they regretted jumping. However, one guy actually jumped off and died several years after surviving the first jump.
Posted by: ben | April 22, 2009 at 02:39 PM
since he was the CFO of the mortgage sector I'm not all that sure he was an "everyday folk".
Yes, but he was only CFO since September, and "acting" CFO at that. We're all jumping to conclusions here. For all we know the suicide was for reasons unconnected with his job. Hard to believe someone could inflict this on his family, never mind on himself.
Posted by: jimmyk | April 22, 2009 at 03:12 PM
I heard that he was moved up to his position when the top Freddie Mac execs were essentially fired recently. Before that he was just a junior guy. Supposedly very hard working, moral guy and good family man. 5 year old daughter. 16 years with the company (unlike those dive-bombing CEOs who fly in, destroy, and fly out again). Wouldn't read much into his house. In Arlington, it doesn't take a lot of house to be at a 1 million price tag. I feel so sad for this guy and his family. I actually hope there is some non-Freddie reason.
Posted by: bio mom | April 22, 2009 at 03:15 PM
bio mom, it's a big, gorgeous house, beautifully landscaped.
Posted by: bad | April 22, 2009 at 03:34 PM
Bad,
My guess is that it certainly was more than a million. Did you think so too?
Posted by: Jane | April 22, 2009 at 03:46 PM
Where was Hillary?
(Remember Vince Foster)
Posted by: fdcol63 | April 22, 2009 at 03:47 PM
"If I was ever going to kill myself ..."
... self-immolation would be the last thing I'd do.
Posted by: fdcol63 | April 22, 2009 at 03:49 PM
I would say so, Jane, based on what I've seen of real estate markets there.
Posted by: bad | April 22, 2009 at 03:51 PM
I had a neighbor that did the exact thing.
Me too; I'll never forget hearing his wife scream when she found the body hanging at night. Sorry for not being more sympathetic to the deceased, but you've gotta really hate your spouse to let her (and it always seems to be guys that do this) find you like that. I can't imagine the spouse not being permanently scarred.
Posted by: Captain Hate | April 22, 2009 at 04:10 PM
I would guess the entire contents of his suicide note were "I can see the Fnords."
Posted by: P | April 22, 2009 at 04:24 PM
Inexplicably, a successful business, loving wife and two children weren't enough.
Only someone who has never suffered through chronic depression could call it inexplicable.
Posted by: P | April 22, 2009 at 04:26 PM
Only someone who has never suffered through chronic depression could call it inexplicable.
Word.
And there are no fnords. If you can't see the fnords, they can't hurt you.
Posted by: Charlie (Colorado) | April 22, 2009 at 04:28 PM
Did anybody Else just hear Ollie North on Hannity?
And, I paraphrase.
He just said he was on a Flight with "An Executive for a major bank" and this executive said that the funny thing about the "No body under $250,000 will pay more taxes" statement, was that after the Fed fueled hyperinflation in 2 years everybody would be making $250,000.
Posted by: Pofarmer | April 22, 2009 at 04:33 PM
Captain;
@ 15 years ago my mother's next door neighbor shot himself in the bathroom. His 6 year old son found him. After that, I never had any sympathy for a suicide.
Posted by: matt | April 22, 2009 at 05:01 PM
Suicide is selfishness and hubris feeding on themselves.
Posted by: sbw | April 22, 2009 at 05:56 PM
car exhaust pipe, with pink floyd, Dark side of the moon in the cd...
big gig in the sky.
not in my plans, but I can't know if twenty years from now, I'll be dying of cancer.
hanging?
the easiest homicide to make look like a suicide.
Posted by: seymon | April 22, 2009 at 06:31 PM
"the easiest homicide to make look like a suicide"
if you don't own a gun.
Posted by: seymon | April 22, 2009 at 07:22 PM
Agree w/Jane. NOT "everyday" folk.
Posted by: bolitha | April 22, 2009 at 07:45 PM
Suicide is selfishness and hubris feeding on themselves.
SBW, as P noted, anyone who has truly dealt with a really severe acute depressive episode understands completely how it could happen.
Posted by: Charlie (Colorado) | April 22, 2009 at 08:36 PM
A relative of mine once had a strange premonition that her son ( who was in his twenties and troubled by several demons ) was in danger. She cut him down from a noose and saved his life.
Another relative of mine found his mother with her head in the oven, and saved her life. Her husband had left her for his secretary.
I agree that suicide is often just as much an act of hostility toward others as it self-directed.
Posted by: peter | April 22, 2009 at 09:39 PM
Ditto that Charlie. Chemical depressioin is nothing to fool around with. A friend of mine finally accepted the fact that she needed to be on medication for the rest of her life when she almost drove off a bridge -- for no reason. Most other true suicides are virtually incapable of thinking beyond the moment when blessed peace will descend.
Posted by: JM Hanes | April 22, 2009 at 09:59 PM
ChaCo, having lost friends and relatives to it, I can also understand how it could happen... and also see why, besides fighting imbalances in brain chemistry that can cause it, the defective reasoning needs to be met when and where it can.
A brain is like a thoroughbred. Ride it or it rides you. And one does not learn to ride taking Social Studies or English in high school.
I am upset when any life is squandered... and by social systems that are not constructed to help.
Posted by: sbw | April 22, 2009 at 10:02 PM
SBW, as P noted, anyone who has truly dealt with a really severe acute depressive episode understands completely how it could happen.
Yeah well those of us that haven't don't understand; so who's right? Maybe somebody who's dealt with severe depression that didn't commit suicide is a better person than those that did. Sorry if that makes me sound like a bad person but I've seen the wreckage wrought on the survivors of suicides, including co-workers and distant relatives, and I care more about them.
Posted by: Captain Hate | April 22, 2009 at 10:07 PM
Captain, regardless of what caused the suicide, the pain is there for those left behind. Ministering to them and caring for them is a very good thing. I'm glad you've helped those people.
Posted by: bad | April 22, 2009 at 10:34 PM
JMH, chemical depression can result from a medication reaction. I've wondered how many suicides where no one had any idea there was a problem, resulted from a chemical imbalance.
Thank goodness your friend was able to recognize that she needed help and got it.
Posted by: bad | April 22, 2009 at 11:07 PM
WSJ: LUN
The article also says his undergrad was political science and his masters was in finance. Interesting...
Posted by: bad | April 22, 2009 at 11:43 PM
I have been praying for the family this day.
Posted by: maryrose | April 23, 2009 at 12:45 AM
Captain:
No one even so much as implied that it's not tragically life altering for survivors! Despite your blustering, it helps survivors to understand why a loved one committed suicide, whether it mitigates a terrible, unnecessary sense of responsibility or the anger that almost invariably compounds the grief. Telling a young person that his father was a selfish bastard who just didn't give a damn about anyone else, does not help anyone, especially when it's untrue. Part of why a lot of clinically depressed people end up committing suicide is a misguided belief that they ought to be able "deal" with severe depression without the supposed "crutch" of medication.
Posted by: JM Hanes | April 23, 2009 at 01:00 AM
bad:
It's the chemical imbalance which requires medication. Depression can often be a side effect of other medications, and sometimes a serious side effect, but clinical depression is an entirely different beast.
Posted by: JM Hanes | April 23, 2009 at 01:06 AM
He had at least one child, a five-year-old daughter.
Are we sure he committed suicide?
Posted by: Patricia Downing | April 23, 2009 at 01:17 AM
WaPo has more details on the situation. No note.
LUN
Posted by: bad | April 23, 2009 at 02:22 AM
Captain:
No one even so much as implied that it's not tragically life altering for survivors! Despite your blustering
You putting yourself on a high ethical plateau than me has been duly noted. Good luck with the nosebleeds.
Posted by: Captain Hate | April 23, 2009 at 06:27 AM
You know you are both saying the exact same thing - just from different ends of the rope (so to speak).
Posted by: Jane | April 23, 2009 at 07:37 AM
JMH, you write beautifully, with wonderful content. And ChaCo offers solid insight, too. I sometimes write okay, but often oversimplify trying for accessibility and lose the intent.
When I wrote that suicide reflects selfishness and hubris, those are the starting points for friendly assistance when one discovers someone with such inclination.
Schools in their Dickensian "Hard Times" approach to learning cannot conceive of a brain as a Turing Machine-type computer capable of recursion -- of thinking about thinking about thinking: of looping.
And in such a situation one cannot "think" one's way out of the loop. One needs to walk, to exercise, to watch slapstick movies, to sleep, to play with puppies. In that way, and in learning about thinking, non-professional therapy can work parallel to professional therapy.
And then, too, sometimes, Mother Nature does her work when it is time for someone to cease the psychic pain. But I try like hell for it not to be. Ninety percent of my job running a company is coaching and counseling damaged people that schooling never helped. I have learned useful ideas that help... but not enough.
Posted by: sbw | April 23, 2009 at 07:46 AM
Mickey Kaus has a piece on the suicide:
Posted by: anduril | April 23, 2009 at 10:22 AM
Why would Obama and Geithner make such an estimate?
Because they're stupid.... duh! And it sounded good at the moment and propbably polled well.
But I love the "juiceboxy" line. It illustrates the insanity of liberal economic "thinking:"
AS long as we have good intentions, the money will work itself out. kumbiya and pass the pipe...
Posted by: bad | April 23, 2009 at 11:38 AM
CaptainHate:
I may have mistaken what seemed to be your combativeness, but I certainly don't plant myself on any higher ethical plateau. You framed the question in terms of who is a "better person," not I. When someone does commit suicide, understanding why that happens does not come at the expense of those left with the horrendous aftermath, it far more often helps those whose lives are shattered as a result.
Posted by: JM Hanes | April 23, 2009 at 04:38 PM
sbw:
You write beautifully and substantively yourself. I do agree that suicide is generally the result of an inwardly focused downward spiral, although this is not what is generally meant by selfishness. I also agree that there are many potential suicides that can be averted or perhaps preempted with interventions of one sort or another, whether chemically in the case of clinical depression, or with professional therapy, or with attention, advice, and sometimes tough love from concerned family or peers.
When my son was young, he typically reacted to any setback with a kind of whirlpooling despair that sucked in any and every painful experience as if in confirmation of his helpelessness in the face circumstances that he could never hope to change. That strikes me as just the sort of "looping" that you describe. It was simply not something that he could be reasoned out of, and I ended up short circuiting the process by doing things like glancing toward a window and suddenly exclaiming, "Look! There's a squirrel running round and round the big tree! Can you see it?" It was sort of like jump starting his engines again, and it seems similar to the process of turning his attention outward again that I think you're suggesting.
The underlying tendency I saw in my son seriously worried me for a long time, but in the end I feel lucky that it was so pronounced that it was identifiable so early in his life. I believe that it is a personality trait that he was simply born with, but it was leavened over time as he learned how to direct himself outward on his own. It still shows up fleetingly from time to time, but it is not really worrisome any more.
The heart can only ache for the parents whose are stunned by a teenager's suicide, and blame themselves for not seeing the "signs" of impending tragedy. But I think the signs are often almost impossible to detect when young people find their own inner turmoil inexplicable and compensate for a perception of themselves as wanting by working very hard to cover it up.
As you explain it above, I think perhaps we are not really very far apart, don't you?
Posted by: JM Hanes | April 23, 2009 at 04:46 PM
It seems tacky to speculate on such a sad matter but the WaPo near the very end of its story on this today indicates he'd had a dispute with a regulatory official who wanted him not to disclose to shareholders as much as he thought he should about the cost to them of Obama's policies.
Posted by: clarice | April 23, 2009 at 05:02 PM