Banks Take Bigger-Than-Estimated Hit on Freddie, Fannie

"We have said more than once that a terribly misguided aspect of the Freddie and Fannie conservarorship was the elimination of dividends on the GSE's preferred stock. Preferred was the best vehicle that struggling financial firms had for raising new capital. Eliminating the dividend lead to big losses in all financial preferred stocks, since investors assumed any bailout would similarly trash the preferred. Indeed, it is quite possible that this move accelerated Lehman's demise, since it closed off its best funding option."