Who Knew What When?

The Journal said Fannie Mae was warned in a 2006 internal report of abuses in the way lenders and their law firms handled foreclosures, long before regulators launched investigations into the mortgage industry's practices. The report said foreclosure attorneys in Florida had "routinely made" false statements in court in an effort to more quickly process foreclosures and raised questions about whether some mortgage servicers or another entity had the legal standing to foreclose. Fannie Mae executives weren't the only ones who should have seen the housing crisis coming.

In the Times' "High and Low Finance" column, Floyd Norris wrote that former WaMu chief Kerry K. Killinger was talking about the "high risk" in the housing market in internal documents ? and finding signs of fraud in loans ? as early as 2005. But Norris said Killinger "was also convinced that Wall Street would reward the bank for taking on more risk" and it kept on doing so.

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