Fannie Mae: pants on fire

Fannie Mae: Remember Ninja mortgages – no income, no job, no assets? And «liar loans”, with no check of borrowers’ stated incomes? Staid old Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-chartered US mortgage giants, were supposed to have shunned such subprime excesses. Maybe they did. But Fannie now seems to be going out on a similar lending limb. The company is offering borrowers who are behind with mortgage payments up to $15,000 each to clear their arrears. The money comes – get this – as a 15...