There is a difference between making up the rules and actually having to follow them.
When it comes to the government’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, we are all about to find out how expensive following the rules is going to be.
Fannie and Freddie’s nationalization by the Treasury Department on Sept. 7 is fundamentally just a giant accounting maneuver. With a stroke of a pen, the companies’ assets and liabilities have been moved from a corporate balance sheet to the federal government’s.