An inside look at mortgages

This is the most consise but detailed lay out of how mortgages became messier and uglier over time. Note this was written in dec 2007. You will shake your head.

I also saw somewhere today that it was said that 70% of fannie and freddie obligations are held by overseas parties.

Straight Talk on the Mortgage Mess from an Insider

....The Government says they are going to use the credit score as one of the determining factors. But we have learned over the past year that credit scores are not a good predictor of future ability to repay. This is because over the past five years you could refi your way into a great score. Every time you were going broke and did not have money to pay bills, you pulled cash out of your home by refinancing your first mortgage or upping your second. You pay all your bills, buy some new clothes, take a vacation and your score goes up!.....