Returning heroes

The US mortgage agencies have seen their tarnished reputations restored as regulators seek help in easing the mortgage crisis. But some observers say the risks the agencies still face outweigh the benefits they can offer. Simon Boughey reports

Rudyard Kipling, the poet of Britain's high imperial age, once wrote of the hypocrisy of a country that spurned its soldiers, or Tommies, in peace time and then embraced them when there was a war to fight and win:

"Oh, it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' Tommy go away; But it's 'Thank you Mr Atkins,' when the band begins to play"

Management at the two US government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac might sympathise with Kipling's Tommies. After years in the wilderness, reviled by