Weekend Reading: Fannie, Freddie Bailout

Good Sunday morning, and welcome to another edition of Weekend Reading. It's been a busy morning for a Sunday, with the release of details on the bailout plan for Fannie Mae (FNM Quote) and Freddie Mac (FRE Quote), so I will lead this week's reading list with some links to the best information.

First, however, a look back at the week that just finished, and then a look forward to the week ahead, and finally, a summary of articles and papers worth reading.

It was an awful week on the major markets. The Dow and the S&P 500 ended the week down 2.8% and 3.2% respectively, while the Nasdaq posted its second worst week of the year, losing 4.8%.

Why the long faces? Blame a heady mix of awfulness, ranging from weak GDP revisions, a poor jobs report and retreating tech stocks. In general, it was just a bad week to return from summer holidays, so investors took it out on their least favorite stockholdings.

Looking forward, all eyes will be on the Freddie/Fannie bailout plan announced today. What does it mean for Fannie and Freddie, and what does it mean for homeowners, the credit industry, banks, shareholders and on and on. Puzzling through the many implications will not be easy or straightforward, so expect the market to be wildly volatile in the first few days of the week, but overall it will likely see this rescue as a positive.

Turning to economic indicators, next week we will get inflation data, the July trade balance, pending-home sales and the Michigan sentiment index.