the primary cause of crisis was Frank and Dodd's push to reduce mortgage buying standards at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who provide liquidity to mortgagees by buying the loans they (the mortgagees) make to the public. Before Frank and Dodd were able to pass legislation weakening Fannie and Freddie's buying standards, all mortgages purchased off the primary market by these two Government Sponsored Enterprises adhered to Federal Housing Administration standards, i.e. they were "prime" loans. But Frank, Dodd, and their cohorts "rolled the dice" in regards to subprime lending, and, in effect, drowned Fannie and Freddie with junk mortgage paper. In turn, Fannie and Freddie sold the junk loans to institutional investors, who happily bought them with cheap capital provided by the Fed. Attaching trillions of dollars of derivatives to the junk they bought, these investors (particularly the Big Banks) created a bona fide financial crisis.