Changes

'''Fannie Mae''' is the common name for the '''Federal National Mortgage Association ''' ('''FNMA'''). <ref>[http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/1529/ Blaming Fannie and Freddie], Ben Zimmer, ''Visual Thesaurus'', September 16, 2008</ref> Fannie Mae is a company that deals with the secondary [[mortgage]] market. It is a [[New Deal]] agency founded by the U.S. government to provide increased liquidity for mortgages. Although a government sponsored entity (GSE) the company began selling stock to the public in 1968. Fannie Mae has been described as middle class welfare.<ref>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-01/middle-class-welfare-state-invisible-by-design-commentary-by-ezra-klein.html </ref> Many individuals and pension funds [[global]]ly who bought into the illussion of safety and security in a government backed entity, were wiped out when it faltered in 2008. The company was bailed out kept afloat by the US Government (along with [[Freddie Mac]]) after making billions in loans available to borrowers with demonstratively poor credit histories. It was placed in the [[conservator]]ship of another government sponsored enterprise, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) for mismanaging its affairs in September 2008. It currently guarantees against default about $5 trillion in mortgages of American homeowners -- nearly half of all mortgages in the [[United States]].