Fannie and Freddie's Many Happy Returns

摘要

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were among the biggest disasters of the financial crisis. In September 2008, nine days before Lehman Brothers failed, the federal government took over the mortgage companies; it eventually spent more than $187 billion bailing them out. For decades, the companies had provided an implicit government backstop to the U.S. mortgage market, buying loans from private lenders and guaranteeing payments to investors. That helped spur a steady rise in homeownership-until the sub-prime crisis hit and Fannie and Freddie were on the hook for billions in losses.