Free Republic

(SEE GRAPHIC) But based on the number of toxic loans in the system in 2008, the government was responsible for not just a simple majority, but more than two-thirds. It's quantifiable — 71% to be exact (see chart). And the remaining 29% of private-label junk was mostly attributable to Countrywide Financial, which was under the heel of HUD and its "fair-lending" edicts. To be fair, the blame-Wall Street narrative has cemented in the public consciousness, and is hard to crack. That's because in the wake of the crisis, the Obama White House and Pelosi-Reid Congress engineered a cover-up of Washington's...

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is taking steps to brace for an increase in failed financial institutions as the nation's housing and credit markets continue to worsen. The FDIC is looking to bring back 25 retirees from its division of resolutions and receiverships. Many of these agency veterans likely worked for the FDIC during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when more than 1,000 financial institutions failed amid the savings-and-loan crisis. FDIC spokesman Andrew Gray said the agency was looking to bulk up "for preparedness purposes." The division now has 223 employees, mostly based in Dallas.

Bay State house sales plunged a stunning 27 percent in July, the biggest drop in 11 years, new figures show, and experts see few signs of a turnaround any time soon. “It’s a pretty dramatic decline,” said Tim Warren of market tracker The Warren Group, which reported yesterday that just 5,070 Massachusetts houses changed hands last month. That’s the market’s worst July sales volume since 1995. “We’re not pressing the panic button yet, but we are watching the trend lines very closely,” Warren said. Prices are also dropping. Warren reported that median house-sale prices fell at a 6.1 percent annualized...