So much fraud. So many con-men. So little oversight. And the biggest Ponzi Scheme in the history of humanity.

Folks, I'm not sure if you realise it yet, but we're witnessing the biggest financial story of all time. The collapse of the US housing market (aka Ponzi Scheme), and the uncovering of the causes and the rampant corruption, will dominate the news cycle for years to come.

Life as America knew it will never be the same. Everyone, every man, woman and child, will be impacted. And the story won't stop at land's end. The housing Ponzi Scheme was worldwide. Even though the US sure did it up good. USA! USA! USA!

Here's just one of many mortgage fraud stories over at the mortgage fraud blog. And there are so, so, so many more to come. Get ready.

Atlanta's largest mortgage fraud trial see's 10 convictions and 12 guilty pleas

David E. Nahmias announced that after an eight week trial, a federal jury today returned guilty verdicts against ten defendants charged with multiple counts in a mortgage fraud scheme that targeted the Atlanta metro housing and condo market from 2000 through part of 2003.

The verdicts returned today included guilty verdicts on charges of loan fraud, wire and mail fraud, and money laundering.

United States Attorney David E. Nahmias said of the verdicts, “The monetary loss calculated to date is in excess of 41 million dollars but we expect it to be significantly higher when we conclude our work. More importantly, this monetary loss, as great as it is, does not fully capture the loss to the many neighborhoods and condominium communities that have been gutted of their value due to this one fraud scheme.

These guilty verdicts condemn the corrupt actions of the key people who were responsible for this fraud scheme, from crooked attorneys and appraisers, to loan officers, to the man at the top, Phillip E. Hill. The verdicts in this case take us one step closer to repairing the corroded cornerstone of a large-scale corrupt housing market that has made the metro Atlanta area one of the most active mortgage fraud locations in the nation.”

Now we've come full circle - Casey Serin and iamfacingforeclosure.com make The Economist - the poster boy of a system run amok

When HP originally broke the iamfacingforeclosure.com story back on September 21, 2006, just six months ago, I had an inkling that the kid would end up getting worldwide pub, and eventually (after a stint in jail) rich from being the poster boy of the late great housing ponzi scheme and everything that went wrong with a corrupt REIC and a financial system designed for a meltdown.

Ah, the American dream...

Well, now the kid has hit The Economist. No, seriously, Casey Serin has hit The Economist. No, seriously. I'm not kidding. Seriously. Yes, the magazine who wrote the best housing bubble story of all time - In Come the Waves. Yes, the world's greatest magazine. That Economist. And now Casey Serin....

Cracks in the façade - America's riskiest mortgages are crumbling. How far will the damage spread?

The Economist

CASEY SERIN knows all about the excesses of America's housing bubble. In 2006 the 24-year old web designer from Sacramento bought seven houses in five months. He lied about his income on “no document” loans and was not asked for anything so old-fashioned as a deposit. Today Mr Serin has debts of $2.2m. Three of his houses have been repossessed; others could share that fate. His website, Iamfacingforeclosure.com, has become a magnet for those whose mortgages are in trouble.

Mr Serin and people like him are Wall Street's biggest uncertainty just now. How many Americans are saddled with mortgages they cannot afford on houses that are losing value? The answer matters to anyone who bought high-yielding mortgage-backed securities when a booming property market made mortgages look safe. It also matters to investment banks, which packaged the securities and often own subsidiaries that originate mortgages. It may determine whether America's economy falls into recession. It could even affect the outcome of next year's elections.

Lenders got the demand for loans that they wanted—and more fool them. Amid the continuing boom, some 40% of all originations last year were subprime or Alt-A. But as these mortgages were reset to higher rates and borrowers who had lied about their income failed to pay up, the trap was sprung. A new study by Christopher Cagan, an economist at First American CoreLogic, based on his firm's database of most American mortgages, calculates that 60% of all adjustable-rate loans made since 2004 will be reset to payments that will be 25% higher or more. A fifth will see monthly payments soar by 50% or more.

A glut of unsold homes will also push down prices, particularly in areas such as California and Florida, which had a disproportionate share of riskier loans. House prices have already been falling in parts of both states, as they have in Midwestern states, such as Michigan, where manufacturing industry has shed jobs in recent years. Will those declines accelerate and spread?

Few doubt that the subprime mess was, in part, a regulatory failure. But now the mistakes have been made, the biggest risk is that populist politicians rewrite the rules hamfistedly. Fraudulent activity should be punished. The vulnerable need protection from predatory lenders. But an ill-conceived swathe of new “consumer protection” could easily make matters worse. If restrictive regulation scared investors away from the subprime market for good, that really would hurt the poor.