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The U.S. government has pledged to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in an attempt to bolster eroding confidence in the nation's largest mortgage finance companies. The two government-chartered, shareholder-owned institutions own or guarantee more than half the mortgages in the country and, together, they owe over $5 trillion of short-term debt outstanding.
Dean Foust, Atlanta bureau chief for Business Week, and Gretchen Morgenson, business columnist for The New York Times, talk about the bailout and what the government's plan means for the housing market.
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