The deep global economic slowdown began in August 2007 when defaults in the U.S.home mortgage market caused financial markets to curtail lending.

VOA: standard.2009.03.24

A rash of home mortgage defaults helped spark last year's financial meltdown.

VOA: standard.2009.08.25

A once-successful titan in the insurance industry, AIG (American Insurance Group) became enmeshed in America's home mortgage meltdown by insuring questionable debt accrued by banks and other institutions around the world.

VOA: standard.2009.03.24

To some in Washington, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is the master economist whose aggressive actions and creative solutions prevented complete economic collapse in 2008, when major American banks, investment firms,insurance companies, and home mortgage giants were failing at a catastrophic pace.

VOA: standard.2010.01.24

Mortgage financer Fannie Mae reports that payments on five percent of its single-family home loans are late.

VOA: special.2010.01.01

In America,the traditional way to finance a home purchase is with a thirty-year, fixed-rate mortgage loan.

VOA: special.2011.01.24

By the end of March, twelve percent of homeowners with a mortgage were late on loan payments or in the process of losing their home.

VOA: special.2009.05.29

When home owners receive default notices from their mortgage companies, community advocates inform them of their rights.

VOA: standard.2010.02.17

It was the mass-issuance of mortgages to consumers with poor credit ratings that led to a rash of mortgage defaults and home foreclosures beginning in late 2007.

VOA: standard.2009.10.01

In the first 51 days of this president, the administration has passed a series of really dramatic moves: the biggest financial rescue package that we have seen in decades, the largest stimulus in the history of the country, the biggest home foreclosure prevention and mortgage assistance program since the Depression."

VOA: standard.2009.03.15