Bloomberg - "Citigroup, JPMorgan in Market Talks With Treasury" (10-13-07)

"Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are leading a group of banks that are in talks with the U.S. Treasury about a plan to revive the asset-backed commercial paper market. Discussions over the past two weeks addressed structured investment vehicles, units set up by banks to finance purchases of assets including subprime mortgage debt, said a government official and a banker with knowledge of the deliberations. Under one plan being considered by the banks, lenders would establish a fund of as much as $100 billion to buy assets from the SIVs, said two people familiar with the negotiations who declined to be identified because the talks are continuing."

Washington Post - "The O.C. Mortgage Bust" (10-13-07)

"The good times are over for the get-rich-quick industry that grew up in Orange County and thrived in the first half of the decade, when interest rates hit record lows and home prices surged. Four of the six largest and boldest lenders of risky mortgages were based in this Southern California county back then, and all cashed in on what seemed an insatiable appetite for home loans."

The San Diego Union Tribune - "Mortgage crisis has hit Latinos especially hard" (10-13-07)

"California's growing Latino population has been hit especially hard by the meltdown in the real estate market and many now are paying the price for purchasing homes with subprime mortgages that should never have been approved. That was the conclusion reached yesterday by financing experts who addressed a homeownership conference held in Coronado that was sponsored by California's Latino legislators."