The U.S. Government has filed 17 lawsuits naming individual financial firms including the largest U.S. banks as defendants on Friday, 9/2/2011. According to the Fox News report “Government Sues Biggest U.S. Banks Over Mortgage-Backed Investments”, the Government lawsuits claim that the defendants sold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac billions of dollars worth of mortgage backed securities that turned toxic when the housing market collapsed in 2008. (Fox News) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are private organizations known as Government Sponsored Enterprises or G.S.E.’s. The U.S. congress created G.S.E.’s to reduce the cost of capital for certain borrowing sectors of the economy. Members of these sectors include students, farmers and homeowners. (Investopedia)