Fanniefredderung

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Or maybe I should spell it Fanniefrädderung, which has the benefit of being more explicitly Wagnerian if harder for non German-speakers to pronounce. It’s now the Curious Capitalist’s official name for the predicament facing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Just thought of it myself (and did a quick Google search to make sure nobody had beaten me to it.)

This reminds me of my abrupt abandonment of a project a few months back to come up with a name for this whole stinkin’ never-ending real-estate/credit-market/economic semi-debacle. I loved a lot of the suggestions I got from commenters here and elsewhere, but soon despaired of ever coming up with one that was catchy and original and descriptive and likely to catch on.

jenga.jpg

Well, at least there’s always “Jenga,” Duncan Black‘s family-friendly name for the mess.

Yeah, I know it’s not a great picture. I took it with my Blackberry, which has a lot of pocket lint on the lens.

It was taken this Monday morning. The financial world seemed about to collapse, and I was dropping Curious Capitalist Jr. off at day camp. He made a beeline for the table with the Jenga box on it. Which seemed ominously appropriate.