Look Fenn ole boy, this crap happens every 10 years or so. Don't ever expect things to change for any amount of time. The primary problem is that the folks who make the loans get paid for that and not the repayment of the loan. The carrot is provided at the wrong time so the horse eats it and goes on to the next loan all the while leaving behind a pile.

Yes, the fat bonuses have been made and now it`s time for the tax payers to bail out the lenders. Hank Paulson got a blank check for Fannie & Freddie and didnt even have to fire the CEO`s. All of this free money is not only causing inflation but after Obama wins he will have to raise taxes quite a bit to cover the 10 trillion dollar plus deficit, where he will be blamed by the republicans as a tax and spend democrat.

I believe that the bankers and the regulators who are the federal supervisors for those banks were blatantly negligent
in the area of mortgage lending.
The borrowers trusted their bankers. The Borrowers relied on their bankers. You should understand that federally chartered saving banks have very few operating regulations for mortgage lending. That means that these banks operate with absolute impunity and answer to no one. Most of these banks are self regulated.
The are no federal consumer banking regulations. That means that the mortgage borrower has no redress or right to question,object or contest his foreclosure with in the regulatory system in which the same bank lends the money. Therefore the banks operate on the "Lynch Mob Theory". The Banks foreclose the mortgage and hang the borrower. Even if the borrower has defaulted, he deserves to be heard-that is how we do it in America. The bank makes their own lending rules, designs and creates the mortgage paper work and enforces their covenants as they see fit.
The borrower has no rights,and that is because Congress has passed no laws since the 1990's savings and loan crisis in order to protect the banks from any consumer reprisal.
If you need to verify these facts,then there are 4 million foreclosures pending and completed. 3 states now suing Countywide bank;states have no authority over federal banks,but these states claim Countywide harmed their citizens with their home loans.
Michael LittleBig
I am one of those 4 million.

it's = it is

its = possessive of it. I.e, you should have written "Some indicate that this is a crisis of its own."

CEO's -- what do they possess? The proper usage here is CEOs, like "The heads of these banks..."

To those who have commented, the primary reason why the credit market is going belly up has nothing to do with Freddie or Fannie Mac. They did not sell or market the loans; they were just stupid enough to buy the loans.

It has to do with the fact that President Reagan deregulated the Banking industry in the 1980s, thus creating the system we have now with cowboy mortgage brokers who provide mortgages to nearly anyone and then sell the paper to banks or investment houses.

The subprime market did not exist until after the deregulation and only became hot in the last 5 years when the cowboys gave out mortgage like candy with no money down required.

See the American Prospect's explanation of this at http://preview.tinyurl.com/477k64

I'm disappointed that Bob B has more concern for my mangling of the King's English than for the real world devastation caused by corporate greed and mismanagement. He sounds like a CEO or so called financial expert.