I frankly do not know how many and much crap was shoved onto F and F before they had "their problems"
I frankly assume a housing CRASH did put F and F in serious trouble as they reinvested their capital in - housing
The killer as I see it - and its played out in newspapers - is that F and F as they lost market share to insane give the money away banks 1) loosened up (mistake in hindsight)and 2) bought a TON of high yielding PLMBS (300B or so?)
That 300B soured on them and the ASSET write down was massive
So I think it was F and F fighting back in a dumb fashion against the corrupt banks by buying their bad paper that was the death nail
not gov pushing paper on them
I could be wrong but from day one - I saw the collapse as being caused by banks lending like crazy (no proof no papers heres money - interest only - sign here ) ---- then selling that crap paper with AAA ratings to pensions - foreign governments - and yes FNMA
When did F and F start "buying" paper that did not have 20% down as part of the mortgage arrangement --- or the equivalent in PMI
To my knowledge NEVER
So as much as people want to think F and F gave away money to people who did not pay back due to GOV influence --- I find that hard to accept if I am right that any such leaning (and they did lean that way) still came with ONLY buying and packagaing paper with 20% down or PMI and 10% down
So yes F and F leaned to the middle class but it is HUD or FHA or ? that did the crazy 2-3-4% equity mortgage stuff - I think - and F and F while business like and liberal by their underwriting rules stayed smart --- until the very end to compete with the banks who went insane in whom they lent to