Article Source Some thoughts about the role played by the GSEs in the run-up in mortgage debt and house prices. Paul Krugman ably lays out the case for why it's conceivable that Fannie and Freddie could have made a contribution: Here's the background: Fannie Mae-- the Federal National Mortgage Association-- was created in the 1930s to facilitate homeownership by buying mortgages from banks, freeing up cash that could be used to make new loans. Fannie and Freddie Mac, which does pretty much the same thing, now finance most of the home loans being made in America. The case against Fannie and Freddie begins with their peculiar status: although they're private companies with stockholders and profits, they're "government-sponsored enterprises" established by federal law, which means that they receive special privileges. The most important of these privileges is implicit: it's the belief of investors that if Fannie and Freddie are threatened with failure, ...

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 ...

This is a great, must-read article about the wrong way to invest in China. The crux of the article (that I absolutely agree with) is to avoid the inefficient state-owned enterprises and concentrate on the rapidly growing private companies run by Chinese entrepreneurs. "FXI tracks a FTSE/Xinhua index mainly comprised of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). In fact, of the top 10 holdings of the ETF … 10 are SOEs"