Freddie Mac 2008 Annual Report Download - page 184

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of Freddie Mac:
In our opinion, the accompanying consolidated balance sheets and the related consolidated statements of operations, of
cash flows, and of stockholders’ equity (deficit) present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Freddie Mac,
a stockholder-owned government-sponsored enterprise, and its subsidiaries (the “Company”) at December 31, 2008 and 2007,
and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2008 in
conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. These financial statements are the
responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based
on our audits. We conducted our audits of these statements in accordance with the standards of the Public Company
Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable
assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test
basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements, assessing the accounting principles used
and significant estimates made by management, and evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that
our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
We have also audited in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United
States) the supplemental consolidated fair value balance sheets of the Company as of December 31, 2008 and 2007. As
described in “NOTE 17: FAIR VALUE DISCLOSURES,” the supplemental consolidated fair value balance sheets have been
prepared by management to present relevant financial information that is not provided by the historical-cost consolidated
balance sheets and is not intended to be a presentation in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the
United States of America. In addition, the supplemental consolidated fair value balance sheets do not purport to present the
net realizable, liquidation, or market value of the Company as a whole. Furthermore, amounts ultimately realized by the
Company from the disposal of assets or amounts required to settle obligations may vary significantly from the fair values
presented. In our opinion, the supplemental consolidated fair value balance sheets referred to above present fairly, in all
material respects, the information set forth therein as described in “NOTE 17: FAIR VALUE DISCLOSURES”.
The Company has been placed into conservatorship by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (“FHFA”). The U.S.
Department of Treasury (“Treasury”) has committed financial support to the Company and management continues to conduct
business operations pursuant to the delegated authorities from FHFA during conservatorship. The Company is dependent
upon the continued support of Treasury and FHFA. These and other related matters are discussed in “NOTE 1: SUMMARY
OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES” to the consolidated financial statements.
As discussed in “NOTE 1: SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES” to the consolidated financial
statements, the Company changed how it defines, measures and discloses the fair value of assets and liabilities as of
January 1, 2008, elected to measure certain financial instruments and other items at fair value that are not required to be
measured at fair value, changed its method of accounting for uncertainty in income taxes as of January 1, 2007, elected to
measure newly acquired interests in securitized financial assets that contain embedded derivatives at fair value as of
January 1, 2007, and changed its method of accounting for defined benefit plans as of December 31, 2006.
/s/ PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
McLean, Virginia
March 11, 2009
181 Freddie Mac