Thanks, Bill Clinton!

An eerily clairvoyant article by Steven A. Holmes, published in the New York Times on September 30, 1999, predicted this bailout.

...

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

"From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us," said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. "If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry."

...

Barack Obama's favorite line is "...the failed economic policies of the past eight years..." Problem is, the economic failure stems from a couple years before that.