How Congress pushed Fannie Mae to extreme loans

Here is great article on Fannie and how it got into the mess its in. Perhaps, it wasn't even its fault. It seems that it was pushed to extreme loans by Congress:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/business/05fannie.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print


October 5, 2008, The New York Time
Pressured to Take More Risk, Fannie Reached Tipping Point
By CHARLES DUHIGG
“Almost no one expected what was coming. It’s not fair to blame us for not predicting the unthinkable.“— Daniel H. Mudd, former chief executive, Fannie Mae
When the mortgage giant Fannie Mae recruited Daniel H. Mudd, he told a friend he wanted to work for an altruistic business. Already a decorated marine and a successful executive, he wanted to be a role model to his four children — just as his father, the television journalist Roger Mudd, had been to him.
Fannie, a government-sponsored company, had long helped Americans get cheaper home loans by serving as a powerful middleman, buying mortgages from lenders and banks and then holding or reselling them to Wall Street investors. This allowed banks to make even more loans — expanding the pool of homeowners and permitting Fannie to ring up handsome profits along the way.
But by the time Mr. Mudd became Fannie’s chief executive in 2004, his company was under siege. Competitors were snatching lucrative parts of its business. Congress was demanding that Mr. Mudd help steer more loans to low-income borrowers. Lenders were threatening to sell directly to Wall Street unless Fannie bought a bigger chunk of their riskiest loans.