Homeowners might think of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as just the big dogs of the mortgage business, but in Washington, D.

NPR: Democrats Receptive To Fix For Fannie, Freddie

Government-sponsored companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the big investment banks, especially Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, buy loans, package and resell them.

FORBES: Magazine Article

In the Free World it's been another momentous year of dynamic capitalism, with corporate giants under siege in the marketplace or in financial flux: General Motors, Ford, Fannie Mae, Merck and others in Big Pharma, Siemens, Time Warner, Coca-Cola, Sony and Volkswagen.

FORBES: Faces in Sad Places

He slams not just the decision to let Lehman Brothers fail in September 2008 but others, as well the imposition of losses on uninsured depositors at IndyMac, a big Californian thrift, in July of that year, and the hit to preferred shareholders in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae when the government took over America's two housing-finance giants.

ECONOMIST: Learning from the past