Let's Nationalise All the Mortgages in America Overnight, And See What Happens

More financial fun. From today's Financial Times:

"The US government on Sunday seized control of the troubled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage groups in what could become the world’s biggest financial bail-out."


I've just one comment on this, for now. The US government doesn't really know what it is doing, its public statements are confused, contradictory, and not nearly as reassuring as it thinks, and this action will have huge unintended consequences, some pretty disastrous, for the American financial and housing markets. (With whiplash effects as far away as China.)


The rules are being torn up, but they're not being replaced with anything coherent.


More banks and other financial institutions will fail in the aftermath of this (and not just the ones left holding huge, worthless chunks of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac).