"The answer is to abolish Fannie and Freddie."

Bulldozing the dream

"The central role that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac played in the financial crisis shouldn't be ignored. Without the lowered lending standards at Fannie and Freddie, mortgage originators would have paid more attention to the loans they were issuing, because the risk wouldn't have been shifted onto taxpayers so easily. And without the failure of Fannie and Freddie in September 2008, the market might not have destabilized, leading to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the quasi-nationalization of AIG and, eventually, the bailout of the financial industry."