Fannie Mae (OTCQB:FNMA) and Freddie Mac (OTCQB:FMCC) are two companies that were created by the government and were forcibly taken over by the government in 2008 to shore up the banking system. The government at the time was afraid that the cascading wave of mortgage defaults across private label securities was going to impact the market for agency mortgage backed securities. According to Treasury Secretary at the time Hank Paulson, Russia and China threatened to dump agency mortgage backed securities if the government didn't step in. The government came in and