Cramer: An Elegy for Fannie and Freddie

Notice I am dispensing with the caveats, having hurt enough people by caveating all of the prospective tragedies in this group that have come true already (go back to the Dirty Dozen piece if you disagree.)

So with the government takeover, hopefully we can begin to get some sort of recognition of the seriousness of the situation, something that eluded the Fed last year and now eludes the Treasury and Congress and of course, the most clueless president economically in our history. This man mantra seems to be, "If cutting taxes doesn't solve it, then it can't be solved."

This whole new downturn is not because of Janet Yellen (Fire in a Crowded Theater). She's a good proximate cause. It is a recognition that the banking system could be going down here and the vanguard of the decline is the outfit meant to make housing more affordable, the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs). After this, they won't be sponsored, they will be owned. Hopefully someone creative enough in this administration will recognize that what is needed is a huge pool of capital to buy mortgages stuck in the system -- I had thought the Fed should issue $200 billion in two-year notes and buy them, but it is way too late for that. The new recapitalized FNM/FRE will have to securitize a trillion in mortgages, offer some guarantee of a payoff, and at last we can get through this.

Of course, that presumes that anyone is at home in the government or even thinking about this.

And that may be too optimistic.

Either way, it's all unwinding now. Let's hope someone sees the potential for the new RTC. It is right in front of us. All you have to do is get rid of the private part of FNM/FRE -- the equity holders.

Looks like that's coming, looks like it is coming like an 18-wheeler down the interstate, right at these two entities that will soon no longer exist at this pace.

At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in the stocks mentioned.

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Jim Cramer writes about all the stock trades in his charitable trust for TheStreet.com in Action Alerts Plus. Recent stocks he's traded in this account include Schering-Plough (SGP), Yamana Gold (AUY) and Freeport-McMoRan (FCX).

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