As you would imagine, stocks tend to drop for companies seized by the government. Two of the most infamous players in the bailout, mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were forced into conservatorship in September 2008 after they racked up about $12 billion in losses. Fannie and Freddie either guarantee or own over half of all U.S. residential mortgages.
Salvaging the companies marked the government's first big bailout of the financial crisis. Congress essentially wrote a blank check to the Treasury Department to do whatever was needed to prop up Fannie and Freddie. The cost of fixing the two companies has already hit around $150 billion, and could ultimately cost up to a trillion dollars, depending on the state of the economy over the next several years.
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