On Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:25:58 +0000, Ich bin ein Amerikaner wrote:

> Other rule changes gave Fannie and Freddie extraordinary leverage,
> allowing them to hold just 2.5% of capital to back their investments,
> vs. 10% for banks.


that's a huge part of the problem, 40x1 leverage which is even worse than
what the investment banks were doing (30x1) which was already completely
out of control. so when exactly did that happen & who to blame (dems or
repubs?)