A response to: Put them back on the Federal Budget   The latter
assumption is important.  Support for one future path for the
GSEs—total privatization—can be based on the notion that the
government should just stop providing so much support for home
ownership. That's a defensible argument, but I take it that's
not the point of this question. The current degree of support
for housing makes many economists cringe, but there aren't many
successful politicians who are going to run on a platform of
reduced policy support for housing. Economic policy has many
higher priorities than trying to persuade voters to lower
government support for this sector. Most, though not all,
analysts believe these supports were not a principal reason for
the housing and credit bubble.   If there is going to be some
degree of government support for housing finance, Fannie and
Freddie should be brought onto the Federal budget as agencies
that guarantee conventional mortgages and create a secondary
market for them by securitising these