Top of a piece that will be in Monday's newspaper:

The government bailed out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac yesterday, belying dozens of Fannie and Freddie executives who said year after year that such a thing would never -- could never -- happen.

"The U.S. government does not guarantee, directly or indirectly, our securities or other obligations," Fannie said in its last annual report. "We are a stockholder-owned organization, and our business is self sustaining and funded exclusively with private capital."

The companies are about to receive what we can conservatively estimate will be tens of billions in taxpayer dollars. That's not private capital.

But whatever the total bill, however maddening it may be to lose again in Wall Street's "heads I win, tails taxpayers lose" version of capitalism, the price is worth it. The cost of doing nothing would have been higher...