Fannie Mae asks for $1.5B more in aid after 2Q loss

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" The government rescued Fannie Mae and sibling company Freddie Mac from the brink of failure two years ago. The new request means they have needed nearly $147 billion to stay afloat.

Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee about half of all U.S. mortgages, or nearly 31 million home loans worth more than $5 trillion. They buy home loans from lenders, package them into bonds with a guarantee against default and sell them to investors.

During the housing boom, Fannie and Freddie faced political pressure to expand homeownership and competitive pressure from Wall Street to back ever-riskier loans. When the market went bust, defaults and foreclosures piled up, and the government had to take them over. "