Logos of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

There is giant news in the world of finance, your mortgage and your taxes today. The federal government is moving to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — the huge and last week shaky backers of nearly half of all American mortgage debt, five trillion in debt.

Afraid they could come tumbling down, the US Treasury Department and Federal Reserve stepped in last night with a call for federal billions to keep them running.

America’s rolling financial crisis just entered a hair-raising new chapter. So, what are we learning?

This hour On Point: in the cauldron of crisis, with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

- Tom Ashbrook

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Guests:

James Hagerty, reporter for the Wall Street Journal
Roben Farzad, columnist and senior writer for BusinessWeek
Paul Willen, senior economist and policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Robert Samuelson, columnist for Newsweek and the Washington Post.