Housing Bust

America's kingpin of mortgages is on a collision course with bankruptcy.
Its name: Countrywide Financial.

If it goes under, the impact on U.S. financial markets will be immediate; the damage to the U.S. economy, long-lasting.

So don't write this off as just another, fleeting chapter in the housing bust story.
Countrywide is the GM and Ford of the mortgage industry, originating $340 billion in loans in the first nine months of the year — more than the mortgage subsidiaries of Bank of America and Citigroup combined.

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