government sponsored enterprises

The future of the government-backed mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which critics have accused of exacerbating the meltdown in the U.S. housing market, will be discussed next month at a conference sponsored by the U.S. Department of Treasury.

As the firms remove their NYSE listings, what survives is the mountain of unpaid bills that could saddle taxpayers with as much as $1 trillion in bad debt. And what's remains unapparent so far is any cogent plan for dealing with the mess.