Good overview of the MBS mess. Just as the current banking crisis is a re-run of the S&L mess twenty years ago, the MBS mess mirrors the junk bond mess of the same time period. Junk bonds themselves were a great idea. But Mike Milken decided to push the ethical and legal envelope to make them a much better thing, for him. Same goes for MB securities. In responsible hands they provide liquidity to the mortgage markets. In the wrong hands they can throw the entire global financial machinery into chaos.

Although it took a second read-through to digest it completely, I am impressed with this commentary. Vincent Reinhart's approach is straightforward, didactic and nonpartisan -- it seems free from the ideological influence of the American Enterprise Institute, of which he is a resident scholar. He is right to challenge the apparent simplifications of the housing market collapse given by Chris Dodd and Barney Frank. Not being an expert on this topic, I have trouble gauging the accuracy of his criticisms, but I found them compelling and tastefully offered. Perhaps another reviewer can provide a more factual assessment than I can.

This article -- clearly a personal opinion -- takes a careful lokk at the problem of the mortgage meltdown. It is 20-20 hindsight to be sure, but it valuable for that. Only when understanding the lead-up can one look for a resolution.