Subprime Panic

If you're interested, the ads are still running and the loans are still out there. Mortgage loans for one and all, the salesman practically say. No money down. No matter what your credit history. No matter what your income. No documentation required. Just come on down!

And waves of cash-strapped Americans have, to get what the headlines now scream are "sub-prime mortgage loans." When home prices were soaring, the sub-prime loan business was a giant joyride. Wall Street rushed in.

Now home prices are falling. The sub-prime circus tent is coming down. And it threatens to bring the US housing market, the stock market, and maybe the economy down with it.

This hour On Point: easy money coming down hard, and fears of a sub-prime panic.

Guests:

James R. Hagerty. He covers Housing and Mortgages for the Wall Street Journal.;
Ivy Zelman, managing director and housing analyst at Credit Suisse.;
Josh Rosner, Managing Director at Graham-Fisher & Company, an independent investment research firm. He's an expert on mortgage securities.;
Robert Shiller, Professor of Economics at Yale University and co-founder of "Macro Markets," a specialty investment bank that trades in real estate markets.