What about Fannie, Freddie?

Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail: Congress created two companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to buy mortgages from lenders, package them into bonds, and resell them to global investors.

These government-created monsters helped fuel the housing bubble that finally burst. When it did, Fannie and Freddie swooned.

To prevent the collapse of its creatures, the government promised that taxpayers would bail them out when their net worth went negative. From September 2008 until just recently, Fannie and Freddie had borrowed almost $137 billion.

“Freddie has lost $82 billion over 10 of the past 11 quarters,” wrote Nick Timiraos of the Wall Street Journal, “or nearly twice the amount it earned in the previous 30 years.”

And there is no end in sight.

The Washington Post reported that Freddie Mac acknowledges “significant uncertainty” about ever weaning itself off government support.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that taxpayers may have to pour $389 billion into Fannie and Freddie through 2019.