What a marvelous choice to bail out a government corporation who created the secondary mortgage market (the market that essentially nationalized the mortgage industry). Why don’t politicians bail out more corporations? Clearly their business brilliance has saved the U.S. economy: bail out the companies who failed, contributed to the mess, and do nothing to change their practices. Makes sense. Why do we need these massive banks again? Oh right, because they’re politically connected.

Fannie Mae asked the U.S. government for an additional $8.4 billion in aid after posting an $11.5 billion net loss for the first quarter, the latest sign that the bailout of the mortgage investor and its main rival, Freddie Mac, is likely to be the most expensive legacy of the U.S. housing-market bust.

Fannie’s losses reflected continuing weakness in the housing market and would have been worse without accounting changes that reduced its deficit. The quarterly loss was an improvement from the $23.5 billion loss for the year-ago quarter and marked the 11th consecutive quarterly loss for the Washington-based firm.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703880304575236030191182938.html