US mortgage mess gets messier.

There's an in depth 4 page report on MSNBC about the US subprime mortgage / housing market problem - There are some astounding statements in that article: One in every 92 US households in foreclosure for 2006, Mortgage fraud reports doubling in the last two years, threats and bribes for appraisers to push up assesments.

This is looking like a bigger and bigger problem for the US, with some comparison being drawn to the savings and loan debacle of the late eighties.

“The (mortgage) industry was trying to create additional home ownership,” said Donohue. “And that’s very nice, and I think that’s a great thing to allow people home ownership. But at what cost? And to what end does that happen? I think what happened is that people — unscrupulous people — took advantage of that and what they did was go out and solicit prospective buyers.”