Originally Posted by dopeman

hmm. good link, but i bet that number has grown significantly. nevertheless, those "companies" are known as government sponsored enterprises (GSEs). that means they are backed up by the federal gov't. this enables them to borrow on the cheap to buy mortgages. they can borrow cheap, because their debt is backed up by the treasury. both of them have been in deep shit recently, and i bet you the true damage is only known to a few deep insiders. if the public knew how fucked they were, people might panic. 2 trillion dollar between them is huge when our total GDP is - what - 10 - 11 trilion?