BARNEY FRANK UPDATE: Barney’s Back.

Rep. Barney Frank says that unless Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac relax their recent tightening of mortgage standards on new condominiums, the economic recovery could be threatened.

That would be the same Barney Frank who famously boasted that the two federal agencies — which lost billions by making improvident loans — were “fundamentally sound financially and [can] withstand . . . disaster scenarios.”

Then came the disasters.

But to Barney Frank, Fannie and Freddie are essentially taxpayer-funded social-service agencies whose mission is to turn all Americans into homeowners — whether or not they can afford it.

Indeed.