The bailing out of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is yet another example of our government not practicing what it preaches in regard to the wisdom of free market capitalism. A government bailout to the tune of billions of dollars used to be rare; In 2008 it's become standard procedure. Frankly, however, if the U.S. were lead by capitalist idealogues who refused to intervene, we'd be looking at a crash of our entire economy akin to 1929.
Yes, government intervention in this case was pretty much inevitable given the current housing and liquidity crises. That said, intervention only became inevitable because of banking de-regulation which directly lead to the sub-prime mortgage mess. Capitalism isn't a perfect system and can lead to all sorts of wild market swings and vicious downturns. That's why government regulation became necessary in the financial markets in the first place. I'm not holding my breath, however, waiting for a Republican epiphany in regard to the fact that de-regulation often leads ultimately to tax payer bailouts.
Here are some interesting Fannie/Freddie articles:
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