Finance & economics | Home truths

Steven Mnuchin begins reforming America’s giant mortgage-guarantee firms

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the last unfinished business from the 2008 financial crisis

|NEW YORK

“THE LAST unfinished business of the financial crisis”: that is the rallying cry of those seeking to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two giant government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) that back much of America’s mortgage industry. In 2008, amid the wreckage of the housing market, they were bailed out by the federal government to the tune of $188bn and placed in “conservatorship”, a form of government control. On September 5th Steven Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, published a long-awaited plan to reprivatise them. “We want to make sure they are not in conservatorship on a permanent basis,” he told the Senate on September 10th.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Home truths”

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