Some more links and information:

This is a really deep article dated Jan 2005 from Forbes about the mess.

Politico has one on the fingerpointing. Not particularly deep, but worth a skim.

This comment caught my eye from a political thread elsewhere (although I admit that opening up discussion on the actual content of the bills is dizzy ):

Quote
The GSEs weren't private enterprises in any real way-- that government guarantee did exist, and these guys knew it. So a guy like Hagel would have seen himself as fulfilling his fiduciary duty to the taxpayer with this kind of "regulation".
alcyone


One loses so many laughs by not laughing at oneself - Sara Jeannette Duncan
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/llog/duty_calls.png