Of course, WAMU bought my mortgage from American Home Lenders, who bought it from my original lender, BofA. That's 4, count 'em, FOUR note holders in less than 10 years. Why do they do this?

I'm no financial whiz, but here's my guess. I have a federally-guaranteed VA loan at 6.5% interest with a sterling credit rating and I'm way ahead on my payments. I'm a good risk, especially since I only have a 15 year mortgage and I long ago paid off the principal. I know, that's not what the amortization table says, but that's what's really happening. They've already got their money back from me, now I'm just a cash cow with a value in the marketplace.

From now on, it's all gravy for the bankers. But even though I'm a sure bet, they can make even more money on high-risk, high-interest loans, so they've sold off my mortgage (probably at a small loss) so they can raise the capital to loan that to someone else who can't afford it, at a higher rate. Like a steam engine with multiple expansion chambers, each sale of my note moves it into a different risk/benefit efficiency regime so they can squeeze the last little bit of profit out of it. Of course, with that many pipes, it's got to spring a leak somewhere.

Can you spell PONZI? It doesn't take a mental giant or a financial wizard to figure out borrowing on borrowed capital to the fourth power only makes sense if we can guarantee the economy will continue to grow forever, which is the one thing we can guarantee economies will never do.

Can anybody be this terminally stupid? Of course not, these guys know what they're doing, they're not idiots. But banks compete against each other, and to keep their stockholders happy, they can't just make money, they have to make ever more money every year to keep their stock going up. So under this kind of pressure, they take big chances, then they all take chances, so they have to take even more chances to stay even with the competition. So no matter how honest or smart these people are, they are under collossal pressure to take great risks, and they are highly rewarded when those risks pay off. An ideologically favorable government removes regulations and provides insurance in order to keep the ball ever rolling uphill.