Unless you have been on an island somewhere, far away from the news media and financial gossip that goes with it, the Home Mortgage "Crisis" has been flooding the papers. With talk of Federal assistance and new laws/regulations for banks, mortgage brokers and the like, the real estate finance industry is likely in for some significant changes. While licensing of mortgage brokers is long over due, I remain somewhat skeptical as to how our government will ultimately "protect" the consumer and the financial markets from unethical behavior and fraud; they have yet to be successful in legislating morality. I mean really now, when my dog Big Kahuna gets credit card offers in the mail and can apply for a new home loan without income verification, things have been way out of control. Its always the old yo-yo effect; loose credit, tight credit, loose credit, tight credit . . .  you get the idea. What's so unusual is that along with the lowering of interest rates, it has now become more difficult to obtain financing (credit) for consumer loans due the the number of defaults. This has created a paradox in the auto sales industry which has been struggling with poor sales performance resulting in layoffs. This really is a weird market.