Fannie Mae is a “government-sponsored enterprise” that buys up home loans to inject more money into the housing market. That sounds like a public function, and is. But Fannie is actually a private corporation, listed on the New York Stock Exchange and paying its executives the usual handsome bounties. (CEO Daniel Mudd makes $12 million a year). Does that make sense?

Public subsidies have made this business very profitable over the years, the biggest one being an implied taxpayer guarantee of the mortgages it buys (and repackages into securities).