"The capital structures of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are a little complicated," writes Bloomberg's Matt Levine, who glosses over why they became complicated, due to the govt's refusal to admit that it ever did anything wrong. An explainer thread. 1/
bloomberg.com/opinion/newsle… From 9/2008 until about 2017, the govt's clear agenda was to abolish the GSEs under the guise of "reform." So ALL terms of the "bailout" were designed to preempt any financial recovery, or any private investors' claims. 2/

The Big Lie about Fannie & Freddie & the financial crisis continues to shape the debate over the GSEs' future & housing finance. The phrase is a shorthand reference for 21 discrete lies, identified below.A 🧵 explainer on how GSE "experts" still pander to financial illiteracy.1/ What is The Big Lie? The overarching narrative is that GSE credit standards led to their financial collapse & contributed to the housing crash & September 2008 meltdown. Hard data debunks ALL of those falsehoods with mathematical certainty. 2/

1. Why have Fannie & Freddie been kept in conservatorship for 15 yrs? Because of demand for GSE "reform" based on an anti-GSE narrative used to distract away from the fatal flaws & institutionalized fraud of private label residential mortgage securitizations. An explainer 🧵 2. First, the business models of GSE securitizations and private label securitizations are antithetical. The GSEs retain and diversify all credit risk; the private label industry does the opposite.