Mortgage Mess Was 100% Avoidable

Americans spend $24.2 million to defend executives

(NEWSER) - Taxpayers have spent more than $160 million defending Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in fraud lawsuits since the government took over the companies in 2008. The closely guarded cost was released last week after Rep. Randy Neugebauer requested the figures last year. Some $132 million of the total went to defend Fannie Mae, mostly over lawsuits and accounting probes that occurred before the subprime crisis; $24.2 million was spent on the defense of three of the mortgage firm’s ex-bosses, the New York Times finds. And the payments continue. More»

George W. Bush, meanwhile, finishes not quite last

(NEWSER) - Two years in, Barack Obama looks like a pretty good president to the nation’s top presidential scholars. The 44th president came in 15th on the all-time list, two spots behind Bill Clinton and three ahead of Ronald Reagan, in a Siena College Research Institute Poll, the New York Daily News reports. Obama got high marks for his intelligence, imagination and communication skills, but lost points for his experience and—what's this? "Family background"? More»

Hundreds of arrests expected next week

(NEWSER) - FBI agents will fan out across the country next week and arrest hundreds of shady lenders who duped people into taking mortgages they couldn't afford, reports the Financial Times . The crackdown on mortgage fraud will go after companies that misled people about their loans and potential rescue programs, or that flatly encouraged them to lie on their applications. Read the New York Times story here . More»

(NEWSER) - For some, 2009 may be remembered as the year of the Ponzi scheme: Last year, federal regulators prosecuted 13 such scams, but in just the first few months of this year, they’ve already filed 22 cases, reports ABC News. One recent bust is Long Island's Peter Dawson, who stiffed fellow churchgoers, including a man bedridden with lupus and behind on his mortgage payments. More»

'Great Recession' comes as a reality check after decades of '80s-style excess

(NEWSER) - The recession has brought the long '80s boom to an end, but maybe a better America can emerge from the ashes of a self-destructive age of excess, Kurt Andersen writes in a Time cover story. It was plain that the years of giddy growth that started around 1983 had to end sometime, Andersen writes, observing that since the boom began, the average house size grew by half and the average American has put on 20 pounds. More»