Congressional hearings on lending meltdown miss the big boat: fraud and GSEs
Thursday, October 23, 2008 at 11:08AM 
The Department of Justice and the FBI busted another mortgage fraud ring. This one involved more than $4 million in investment properties in New Jersey. Three members of the ring were arrested on Wednesday. Their fraud allegedly resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses to mortgage lenders.
I watched CSPAN for awhile on Wednesday as members of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee grilled key financial players about the lending meltdown that’s playing havoc with economies around the world. There was plenty to rant about—lenders basically pay for their ratings, something many of us already knew but others with retirement plans obviously didn’t. But this committee is starting at the top of the money chain. They should start at the bottom.
