Article Source How did we get into this mess, and how do we get out of it? First, a little background: Both Freddie and Fannie were initially created by the U.S. Congress with the goal of expanding the residential mortgage market. They are for this reason referred to as "government-sponsored enterprises", or GSEs, even though both eventually were converted into private companies for which there is today no explicit government guarantee of their debt.... After a homeowner has borrowed money to buy a home, the original lender likely resold that loan to Fannie or Freddie. The GSE in turn collected some of those mortgages in a pool which was sold in the form of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) to private investors, for which the GSEs collect a fee in exchange for guaranteeing payment on the MBS. Other mortgages purchased by the GSE are held directly by the GSE for its own investment ...

ETF and ETN are becoming more and more popular products for many investors. Sometimes it is used for investing before "real" stock trading. Both offer many advantages compare to mutual funds. Exchange traded funds or notes you can traded directly on exchange. It means you can buy or sell anytime for market price.ETF are still dominant with assets value $602 bln. ETN now accounts $6 bln but increasing rapidly during last year. We could see almost 200% growth in assets value from $2,1 bln to current $6 bln. ETF market grew by 26%.ETN market is not only Barclays' as it was still one year ago. Swedish Export Credit, Deutsche Bank, Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley and others now take around 20% of its value.Category allocation for ETF and ETNRelated tickers: (BCS), (EEH), (DB), ...