In 1974, fresh out of law school, Edward Pinto joined a Michigan affordable housing agency. By 1989 he was a top executive at Fannie Mae. Today Pinto is the go-to housing finance pundit — from the pro-privatization set.

Enormous pools of home equity loans that in fact have little or no home equity standing behind them continue to inspire doubts about the nation's banking giants.

Mountains of bad assets have already been charged off, but mountains of underwater loans remain. However the meltdown plays out, most of the action is on bank balance sheets.

A primary benefit of government participation in the mortgage market has always been to ensure that all creditworthy homebuyers can obtain mortgage financing.