Here's a prescient bit from the New York Times, September 30, 1999. Sorry for the long quote, but as you'll see, it's all important.

Read to the end:

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates....

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

Meanwhile, the Branch Banking & Trust Company (BB & T) -- a $136 billion dollar bank with 1,500 branches in multiple mid-Atlantic states -- is doing fine, thank you very much. Last week, CEO John Allison sent a letter to every member of Congress, offering the perspective of a properly-run bank on the proposed bailout.

It's only a page and a half, but there's too much there to quote. Here's a key point, though I urge you to read it in its entirety:

The primary beneficiaries of the proposed rescue are Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. The Treasury has a number of smart individuals, including Hank Paulson. However, Treasury is totally dominated by Wall Street investment bankers. They do not have knowledge of the commercial banking industry. Therefore, they can not be relied on to objectively assess all the implications of government policy on all financial intermediaries. The decision to protect the money funds is a clear example of a material lack of insight into the risk to the total financial system.