Now the housing crisis that Fannie and Freddie made so much worse has finally ended, and the housing cycle is turning back up, as cycles inevitably do. In the meantime, the U.S. housing finance sector has become a largely nationalized and socialized “government housing complex.” As the central part of that complex, Fannie and Freddie — now owned by, run by, and simply part of the government — have attained even greater monopoly power and an even more dominant market share than they had before the crisis — an ironic outcome! They have returned to reporting large profits, though they are still completely wards of the U.S. Treasury.
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