It now appears that the Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae") and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac") are subject to the same kind of bruising losses afflicting other large financial institutions as a result of sub-prime mortgage-related investments. James M. Wilson discusses the effect of that risk exposure, and of the alleged involvement of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the artificial inflation of home appraisal values, on the housing market’s near-term future. Mr. Wilson writes that “the recent disclosures, investigations and lawsuits are all too familiar to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac investors and have dampened expectations that the GSEs could bailout the suffering housing market.”