President Obama proposes phasing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to shift mortgage-market risk from taxpayers to private banks

There's a proposal in Congress to let the taxpayer-backed mortgage giants die, and Marketplace's economics guy says we should all get behind it.

The regulator overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has announced an idea to reform the mortgage giants. It involves starting a joint venture to bundle mortgages into securities that people can invest in.

Mortgage heavyweights Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have announced a bailout program for struggling homeowners who are current on their payments. If there's a pressing need to leave their property, they can just walk away.

In a costly day of legal settlements, 10 banks agree to pay $8.5 billion to four million homeowners for mishandling their foreclosures.

A government watchdog released a report this morning that scrutinizes the pay of senior staffers at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The report is from the inspector general of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie and Freddie.

The Justice Department says Countrywide Financial — which B of A bought in 2008 — cranked out bad home loans without proper checks to make sure they were legit, and then sold those mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac get some slack on repaying government bailout funds. But they’ll have to shrink their businesses faster than planned.

There's word this morning that the Treasury Department is going to revamp its financial relationship with the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.