Banks, Housing Bubble | featured news

The agency that oversees mortgage markets is preparing to file suit against more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting the quality of mortgages they packaged and sold during the housing bubble, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

A slowdown, or worse, in China's economy because of bursting stock and real-estate bubbles was high on most Davos 2010 participants' check-lists of risks to the recovery in global economic growth. They may have got some reassurance today from China's central bank's decision to rein in the lending that is inflating them by raising its capital reserve ratio requirement of the country' big banks for the second time in a month.

As markets boom, Fed officials and central bank researchers are looking for ways to keep housing and credit bubbles from happening in the first place.