Via Brad DeLong, this interesting point from the WSJ:

The Federal Reserve Act’s Section 13(13), created in 1933 and amended in the late 1960s, allows the Fed to lend to any individual, partnership or corporation with collateral backed by U.S. government securities or securities issued by federal agencies. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debt is generally included in that latter category of safe holdings, even though it’s not directly guaranteed by the U.S. government.

Now that the GSEs are going to be approaching the Fed for funding, they'll need collateral; but presumably they can't offer their own debt as collateral! Does this mean that the Fed won't be accepting GSE debt from anyone else as collateral either?