Mortgage and Housing Markets Fragile

The big federally backed mortgage firms are under the gun, as investors worry about the firms’ ability to finance the loans they hope will end the country’s housing crisis.
But Sacramento mortgage brokers said Tuesday they’re confident the region’s real estate market is withstanding the new turmoil – so far.
Fresh fears that the loan market [...]

…Like Rosie O”Donnell Being a Bond Girl

 
(From Forbes.com, by Maurna Desmond)
One of the things that made the American subprime crisis a crisis was the availability of mortgages to borrowers with dubious credit histories. Turns out that some of the middlemen arranging the mortgages were — and still are — temporarily boosting borrowers’ credit scores, passing off risky bets as worthy investments for the [...]