An array of advocacy groups – both well established and newly formed – have stepped up their lobbying efforts as the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee moves toward a scheduled markup of increasingly controversial mortgage-finance reform legislation. A lot of the noise is coming from disenfranchised investors in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac junior preferred stock and common stock who want to scuttle the bipartisan reform bill put together by Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID. Their legislation is silent on the fate of public stockholders of the two government-sponsored enterprises, and it leaves intact the conservatorship arrangement that strips virtually all the capital from the two GSEs every quarter. In a press conference called by Investors Unite, a group of individual GSE shareholders, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader’s Shareholder Respect, CapWealth Advisor CEO Tim Pagliara predicted...