Looks Like We're Going To Own Some Mortgage Companies

From Fridays Bloomberg article:

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson signaled that a government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac won't be necessary, saying they should continue as shareholder- owned companies with federal charters.

``Today our primary focus is supporting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in their current form as they carry out their important mission,'' Paulson said...

We should have known where this was headed.  From todays New York Times:

Alarmed about the sharply eroding confidence in the nation’s two largest mortgage finance companies, the Bush administration will ask Congress to approve a rescue package that would give the government the authority to buy billions of dollars in stock in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and also lend to the companies to meet their short-term funding needs, people briefed about the plan said on Sunday.

This is going to be expensive.  With any luck, it signals the end of the fiscally irresponsible deregulate everything mindset so popular among todays conservatives.