AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.
Create a link to this page
Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:
The U.S. government's implicit guarantee of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appears to have finally come due. Policymakers are taking steps to prevent the mortgage giants from collapsing. The Federal Reserve has offered access to its discount window, and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has asked Congress for the authority to buy stock in the GSEs (government-sponsored enterprises, of which Fannie and Freddie are instances) to shore up their capital, which many investors think is insufficient in relation to their liabilities. Critics of the GSEs have repeatedly called for higher capital requirements on Fannie and Freddie, but these two have lobbying machines that are ...