Actually, you can thank a lot of people on this one. Many people blame the liberals for bailing out Fannie/Freddie and their "liberal" management making tens of millions a year. However, an often overlooked aspect to Fannie/Freddie is that HUD (Bush appointed) required them to buy nearly $500M in subprime mortgages to help support low-to-mid income housing. No one is faultless here and IF these GSE's collapsed the economy would have some serious concerns.
Housing is a huge component of the economy and failing GSE's would absolutely halt home buying right now (as if it isn't already having serious issues). The true jumbo market (outside the expanded conforming loan amounts) is nearly illiquid right now. Without the GSE's and FHA we have serious problems -- though mark my words -- FHA will be insolvent in less than 2 years.
lol: