Nationalize Fannie Mae? It Worked Until It Was Privatized

By Robert Kuttner, Huffington Post. Posted September 9, 2008.

Amid all the hubbub, it's important to remember Fannie Mae's pedigree.
In the past several days, before the U.S. Treasury Department acted to
seize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, several people asked me if I thought
it was a good idea for the government to "nationalize" the two
mortgage giants. In virtually none of the coverage of the Bush
administration's latest emergency action did anyone bother to tell the
backstory. Fannie Mae, nee the Federal National Mortgage Association
(FNMA), began life as a government invention. It was born
"nationalized" -- and it worked beautifully until it was privatized.