» Click here for the original article

The financial crisis has provided a needed culling of weak US financial institutions and mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should bow out in turn, a top New York banker said Tuesday.

"Under water" mortgages are growing threat to U.S.
Long before she filed for bankruptcy, Ann Neukomm was "under water" — she owed more on her mortgage than her house was worth — a situation more and more Americans are finding themselves in.