[lbo-talk] "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are to blame!"

[Rick]

I was speaking with a liberal friend of mine the other day and she says 
she doesn't agree with the protesters who "blame the banks" for the 
housing component of the financial crisis".  She says it's much more 
accurate to attribute primary responsibility to Fannie Mae and Freddie 
Mac.  According to her, the FM's pushed the notion that everyone needs 
to be a homeowner into America's cultural/political discourse, and 
through various ideological, political and economic means encouraged 
people to buy homes they couldn't afford and encouraged banks to offer 
mortgages that on their own they wouldn't have offered.  She sees both 
home buyers and banks as victims of Fannie and Freddie's policies.

My gut reaction is to just say "Are you kidding?  I'm sure FM had a role 
but it's the banks' voracious need for profit that was the primary 
cause", but my views are not nuanced enough to have this conversation 
intelligently.  Can folks give me further analytical and factual 
information that can help me respond to her?