mortgage backed securities

Standard & Poors recently announced that it was going to lower the ratings of nearly 1,200 mortgage-backed securities.

The problem here, says journalist Jesse Eisinger, is that these were rated in the past two years, meaning the rating agencies don't seem to know what they're doing.

He talks to Kai Ryssdal about the details.

Investing in good mortgage loans will get you a decent yield, particularly in these days of miserable returns from bank CDs.

Many of us think of our homes as investments. But did you know the loan for your home might become someone else’s investment?.

The Fed is looking to hire traders to help manage its investments, including roughly half-a-trillion dollars worth of mortgage-backed securities.

But they won't make the same millions as Wall Streeters. Amy Scott reports.

Mortgage-backed securities are making it difficult for people to take advantage of the Making Home Affordable program.

Part of the problem is that investors have a say in which loans get modified and which don't. Karen Weise from ProPublica reports.

The Federal Reserve's been buying mortgage-backed securities, driving mortgage rates to historic lows. But the U.S.

Treasury Department's been doing the same thing, and nobody's seemed to notice. Steve Henn reports.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced a deal with three major credit rating agencies to overhaul the way they look at mortgage-backed securities. Jill Barshay has the story.

To get the subprime mess off its books, the Swiss bank UBS is selling $15.5 billion-worth of mortgage-backed securities to private investment firm BlackRock.

And it's lending BlackRock $11 billion to do it. Ashley Milne-Tyte reports.

When Wall Street's best and brightest devise things like collateralized debt obligations and mortgage-backed securities in the good times, they're applauded.

But when those things go bad, they get the blame. Bob Moon reports on balancing innovation and regulation.

There are many things the Treasury secretary's plan won't do -- like rein in the loosely regulated hedge fund industry, or crack down on things like mortgage-backed securities or credit-default swaps.

Amy Scott reports on what Henry Paulson didn't say.