The bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has now cost the taxpayer at least 146 billion. By the end, the bailout will likely cost anywhere from $500 billion to $1 trillion. The damage done by Fannie and Freddie is not limited merely to the bailouts. Fannie and Freddie were the main engines behind the securitization drive that drove so much of the real estate bubble. Certainly, securitizzation exists outside of Fannie and Freddie, and would have happened even without them, but the sheer volume of the process, and the fact that fannie and freddie always provided a ready buyer for mortgages provides a little insight into how the GSE enabled a buying frenzy that would have never happened in a private market. And by “private” I mean a market that does not enjoy the sort of cushy tax breaks and monopoly powers that fannie and freddie enjoyed back when they claimed to be “private.” They of course never filed an SEC report for YEARS leading up to the default, and were allowed to continue functioning. Is this how truly private organizations are treated? Certainly not.
The GSE Disaster
