&gt; None of the organizations that benefit are going to voluntarily relinquish access to these crutches<p>Except of course that that&#x27;s exactly what most of them did. By taking preferred stock the treasury gave the banks an incentive to buy back the shares and make the treasury a bit of money on the side. Much better than the UK government buying common stock and being stuck with it till they sell at a loss (as they&#x27;re doing now).<p>My understanding of the GSEs is that they&#x27;re still haggling over precisely what form they ought to take in the brave new world i.e. it&#x27;s not particularly that they want to be state run.