Unaccountable.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Federal National Mortgage Association

Because of Fannie Mae's well-connected executives and board, it took years for the public to get even a hint of what Jerry Knight of The Washington Post describes as its fudged book-keeping, "stretching accounting rules like bungee cords to create fiscal fiction, deceiving stockholders, and manipulating the regulatory process."

How big is the...