Everyone should recall that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were forced to massively increase their already bloated balance sheet in the aftermath of the Bear Stearns collapse. It seems reasonable to me to assume that the two organizations did so only because they were given an implicit guarantee at the time by the government [...]

The situation with Fannie and Freddie is coming to a head soon. Here are a few links on the chatter in the markets and on the blogosphere:
Fannie, Freddie `Insolvent’ After Losses, Poole Says – Bloomberg
U.S. Mulls Future of Fannie, Freddie – WSJ
Poole: Fannie, Freddie `Insolvent’ After Losses – The Big Picture
Former St. Louis President Poole [...]

According to a Wall Street Journal report, the Treasury is concerned enough about the viability of Fannie and Freddie that they have discussed contingency plans in the case of potential bankruptcy.
Given the level of risk these two are taking on their poorly capitalized balance sheets in order to provide liquidity to the mortgage market, it [...]

How many AAA companies do you know of that have seen 80% declines in their market value?
Two that I can think of:
Fannie Mae (FNM)
and Freddie Mac (FRE)

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$75 billion is the capital shortfall that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are facing, according to a report by Lehman Brothers. This type of worry is the reason for their sudden fall in the markets yesterday.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac triggered a surge in the cost of protecting company debt from default to [...]

Today, Fannie released horrible quarterly financial results. The company lost $2.2 billion and is now looking to shore up its capital base.
Fannie said an estimate of its fair value of net assets was $12.2bn at the end of the first quarter. This was 66 per cent lower than the value of $35.8bn assigned at [...]