BTW, avery sensible website where you can see more details and aspects of ongoing finacial crisis:

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/

That website's a real treat, written with a blank line after each and every sentence, much like an Alex Lah post. It produces the same breathless staccato sound in my mind that his posts do.

Actually, its pretty good, but it does sometimes read like a rant.

I disagree. Lots and lots of systemic criminality. You could fill the prisons solely with mortgage brokers if you cared to. Don't know much about the Illuminati or the Freemasons either. Enjoyed Angels and Demons though.

I have a different take than most posters however. I think the citizenry needs only a marginal amount of confidence in financial institutions. In fact I suggest they not have much more than that. Where the confidence need lie is with the government to protect the peoples interests against siad fiduciary criminals. Not to protect the people from their own bad choices of course, but to protect the treasury. Failure to do so will cause the government to lose credibility. That's the real problem, not the fact that banks won't lend. the banks are simly doing what is in their own best interest. The government needs to override that interest for the benefit of the governed. Thusfar they have failed to do this and make themselves appear complicit with the banks. It's a stupid stupid policy.

So which laws did which mortgage brokers break? It's an honest question, not one meant to dispute your contention. I understand that a whole lot of irresponsible mortgages were underwritten, but what made them illegal?

BTW, avery sensible website where you can see more details and aspects of ongoing finacial crisis:

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/

That website's a real treat, written with a blank line after each and every sentence, much like an Alex Lah post. It produces the same breathless staccato sound in my mind that his posts do.

Actually, its pretty good, but it does sometimes read like a rant.

But it's written by people to whom English is a first language, right? So why can't they write in paragraph form?

I disagree. Lots and lots of systemic criminality. You could fill the prisons solely with mortgage brokers if you cared to. Don't know much about the Illuminati or the Freemasons either. Enjoyed Angels and Demons though.

I have a different take than most posters however. I think the citizenry needs only a marginal amount of confidence in financial institutions. In fact I suggest they not have much more than that. Where the confidence need lie is with the government to protect the peoples interests against siad fiduciary criminals. Not to protect the people from their own bad choices of course, but to protect the treasury. Failure to do so will cause the government to lose credibility. That's the real problem, not the fact that banks won't lend. the banks are simly doing what is in their own best interest. The government needs to override that interest for the benefit of the governed. Thusfar they have failed to do this and make themselves appear complicit with the banks. It's a stupid stupid policy.

So which laws did which mortgage brokers break? It's an honest question, not one meant to dispute your contention. I understand that a whole lot of irresponsible mortgages were underwritten, but what made them illegal?

Usually it falls under the category of fraudulent assertions I think. Some of it is more in the conspiracy and racketeering vein.

A two word search in Google for "mortgage fraud" gives 4,290,000 hits. Here's 2 off the first page:

http://www.mortgagefraudblog.com/

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/2...-straining-fbi/

Oooh, there's another one:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-k-bl...n_b_169813.html