Business Week offers an arresting article on so-called "mortgage wholesalers," whose job was to buy up loan applications from mortgage brokers on behalf of big lenders. The competition got so intense that some resorted to offering you know what (it rhymes with hex; the word may trigger spam filters) in exchange for apps. Of course as manicurists and others turned into millionaires, the abuses went much farther--fake documents, harassment, bribery and the like. Of course this rough-and-tumble industry niche was spawned by the Wall Street securitization machine that needed raw material the way the economy needs oil. Eventually Wall Street had to tacitly endorse these seedy practices by turning a blind eye. For all the bad practices, we've seen very little in the form of prosecutions. Will anyone be held accountable?

For more:
- here's the article

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