If you read an article called “I helped cause the financial crisis, and I’m sorry,” you might have come away afraid to refinance a mortgage or buy a home ever again. This entertaining tale was told by a 22-year-old subprime loan officer who worked in the business for nine months before fleeing. The bad news is that some of what Ken Kupchik writes about did happen at other companies besides his. The good news is that a repeat performance is highly unlikely.

Adjustable rate mortgage refinances: the bad and the ugly

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An opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal today warned readers that Ginnie Mae and the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), because of their growing influence in the mortgage market, are quickly becoming a growing financial liability to American taxpayers:

Only last week, Ginnie announced that it issued a monthly record of $43 billion in mortgage-backed securities in June. Ginnie Mae President Joseph Murin sounded almost giddy as he cheered this “phenomenal growth.” Ginnie Mae’s mortgage exposure is expected to top $1 trillion by the end of next year—or far more than double the dollar amount of 2007. (See the nearby table.) Earlier this summer, Reuters quoted Anthony Medici of the Housing Department’s Inspector General’s office as saying, “Who would have predicted that Ginnie Mae and Fannie Mae would have swapped positions” in loan volume?

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