Time to Privatize the Mortgage Finance System

It is now more than five years since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were ignominiously put into conservatorships and became wards of the U.S. government — at a cost of $188 billion. They have continued to function during these five-plus years, and have even become profitable again. But it is long past time to give them a decent burial — and also to make sure that clones don't spring up to replace them.