Quote Originally Posted by KukriKhan View Post
Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac 'too big to fail'.

They're too big to survive with my help, IMO.

They made bad bets. Bought crap product. Looking for the short-term profit, NOT the benefit of the US housing market, the mission for which they were created.

Let'em fall.
Exactly. Are we capitalists here, or are we pinko-socialists? The risk/reward factor has been ignored for too long. Bailouts are the epitomy of regulatory failure, and spreading the effects of that failure across the tax burden of the populace is just criminal. The markets can go pound sand at this point, the Fed should be first and foremost interested in the financial well-being of the citizenry, not the market share prices. Once the amateurs sell off, rational investors will look at the actual assets/debt/earnings of the various listings and put their money in the more sound companies. Anybody that has questionable numbers will get punished, the earth will revolve around it's axis, the sun will rise in the East, and everything will go back to normal. By interfering in this process, the Fed is basically exposing the US Treasury (i.e. us hardworking, tax-paying stiffs) to unscrupulous manipulators and opportunists. There is no money easier to get than taxpayer money.

As far as investment goes, in situations like this there is always someone making money, it doesn't just disappear. If you have the spare capital, finding out where this opportunity is will make you a rich man.