Eric Nalder, Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “Numerous convicts — including embezzlers, robbers, meth dealers and rapists — sold mortgage loans to unsuspecting homeowners in Washington in recent years while state lawmakers and members of Congress debated and tabled requirements for licensing and background checks, records show…Criminals who were barred from the mortgage business in other states continued to sell loans to Washington borrowers…The root causes of the mortgage meltdown were relatively low interest rates, escalating property values and a gusher of credit that flowed from Wall Street. Exempted from liability by Congress, Wall Street investment firms sold record volumes of toxic mortgages to investors in packages known as mortgage-backed securities. That increased eightfold the money available for high-risk lending in just a half-decade. Lending institutions invented dozens of new products to accommodate the gusher that hit a trillion dollars. One product offered extravagant loans to borrowers with practically no proof of income. Mortgage brokers hired loan originators to distribute the low-hanging fruit to home seekers.”