The logic of political economy depends on a domestic metaphor, using the "oikos" or household as a model for the "polis." Historically, this metaphor has imagined citizens as the children of a paternal state. However during the 2008 housing crisis, this metaphor was turned upside down, depicting citizens as the parents of infantile state institutions. Although initially portraying citizens as juvenile "delinquents," the rhetoric of the mortgage crisis ultimately repositioned citizens as surrogate caretakers for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two giant politico-economic institutions that constituted the majority of the mortgage market. In this way, the rhetoric of the housing crisis inverted both the metaphorical and material structure of political economy. (Contains 131 notes.)