targeted assistance to low and moderate income homeowners and renters, jon. jon: a couple of questions for you james. fannie and freddie, were they prime culprits in the housing crisis? and how did they end up in such bad financial straits? reporter: i think most observers would say no they weren t the prime culprits jon, the problem became a cute about five, six years ago when wall street banks, hedge funds and other institutions were covering mortgage based securities and eating into fannie and freddie s market share. fannie and freddie began chasing unworthy mortgage business and the capital reserves weren t deep enough to cover the ensuing losses. whether they ll merge in some new form, a reorganized form as new companies, whether they ll merge in their old form has yet to be seen. i would bet against fannie mae and freddie mac emerging from con s efr tiff ship without having fundamental changes to their corporate structure and