Richard F. Syron

Fannie, Freddie Socked by Investor Paranoia 

It doesn’t take much to knock a company’s stock into the abyss in this sort of unsure financial market — witness the fate Monday afternoon of twin government-sponsored entities Fannie Mae [stock FNM][/stock] and Freddie Mac [stock FRE][/stock] as the latest case studies in what is clearly an increasingly jittery market. Shares in both GSEs were clobbered Monday largely after a warning from a Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. [stock LEH][/stock] said that both GSEs would need to raise as much as $75 billion in fresh capital.