http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/washington/30…

“Large Investor decided to pay a few bucks to a Senator in New York to force the issue.”(Prospect Mortgage Backed By Sterling Fund–Private Equity Acquired The Mortgage Branches from Indymac before FDIC takeover)
http://www.housingwire.com/2008/07/03/regulator…

“And do remember that there are many investment bankers located in New York, making them pretty influential constituents of Sen. Schumer.”
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/opinions/ci_978…

“In a Sunday news conference, he said everything in his letter was already known to the public.”
If it was already known to the public, what is the reason for his public letter? It is contradict to what he said previouly :”I just bring private message to the public. Do not kill the messanger.” What a great liar from time to time!
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/13/indymac….

Same thing he did for FRE and FNM, he forced FRE and FNM to buy $145 billion bad loans last September. So his hedge fund friend could short the stock, then his private equity friend could take huge discount to acquire the properties. So obvious criminal acts, but he is still out law and do whatever to harm the American and benefit himself and his friends.

Thanks for the insights; I referred readers to your comment and included a reference to it in my own discussion, such as it is.

A couple comments…..

“It seems that IndyMac pioneered ‘the issuance of so-called Alt-A mortgages to people with blemished credit histories.’ ‘(WSJ) Yes, that sounds rather risky. Here’s an explanation of that sort of loan.

“An Alt-A loan, also called an alternative documentation loan, is a loan that holds borrowers with good credit to different approval standards than traditional loans. Those applying for an Alt-A loan need not provide income verification or documentation of assets. Instead, the approval for an Alt-A loan is based primarily on an individual’s credit score…..”

The way I view it (and this is simplistic, there is some overlap among the categories) there are three broad categories of loans, prime, Alt-A and subprime. So I don't necessarily believe that all alt-a loans are given to people with blemished credit histories. IndyMac, I believe, was aimed at the jumbo loan market… mortgages over a certain dollar amount (lots of those in CA). I think the borrowers who liked the Alt-A loans were those folks who wanted a house more expensive than they could afford. They didn't qualify (and were more than likely turned down by another financial institution) because their incomes did not support the loan repayments on the house they wanted. But these folks just *had* to have that house and they *knew* that they could afford that extra bit of money each month…. So they went to IndyMac which did not verify their income and gave them the loan…. Granted some folks could have afforded the payments (and are still making payments) but once the economy started going down and folks lost their jobs, coupled with a decline in the value of their house (the collateral) then the folks who were stretched too thin when they took out the loan lost their house. And of course since the house wasn't worth the amount of the loan, then IndyMac started losing money…