Bloggers have been following the developments in the troubled US housing market as closely as the mainstream media. The Mortgage Lender Implode-o-Meter has been logging the collapse of lenders since late 2006, months before sub-prime achieved its buzzword status here; the present count of "imploded" US lenders stands at 127.

Facing legal action from the Loan Center of California, the Implode-o-Meter has become a touchstone for many bloggers tackling the sub-prime situation. But it is not alone in tracking this troubled industry, or in taking an original stance on it ...

The Countrywide foreclosures blog

Tracking the "economic effects of the housing bubble [crash]", the Countrywide Foreclosures blog includes a post detailing a lawsuit brought by the NAACP. The organisation, whose campaigns have been of fundamental importance in the struggle for civil rights in America since its earliest days, is suing 14 leading lenders — including Countrywide, Citigroup and HSBC — alleging racial discrimination and citing the findings of recent studies which "demonstrate that African-American homeowners are paying higher mortgage interest rates than their Caucasian counterparts".

How the World Works

On the How the World Works blog a recent post reflects on how Wall Street's worries have blown across to Hollywood — funding for a number of forthcoming blockbusters may be delayed because of the sub-prime crisis — and comes to a bleak conclusion:

"When Bilbo Baggins, James Bond, and the Terminator are stopped in their tracks, what hope is there for the rest of us?"

The Big Picture

The Big Picture has drawn acclaim from the mainstream media, and its founder, the New York hedge fund manager Barry Ritholtz, is regularly called upon to offer his perspective on the sub-prime situation. Scores of adjectives have been applied to the crisis in the sub-prime. A recent post, Well Contained, dwells on one in particular, drawing together a significant number of quotes from those who have gone on the record to say that there is nothing to fear — the crisis is "well contained".

HousingPANIC

A blog that bills itself as having "a serious attitiude problem", HousingPANIC also nails its political colours firmly to the mast in a recent post that looks ahead from today's sub-prime anxiety to the 2008 presidential election in the US, and asks who the American public will ultimately hold accountable.

"Rightly or wrongly, will Americans come to blame George Bush (the worst president ever) and the GOP for the housing crash?... Will the housing crash be the No 1 issue on voters' minds in 2008?"

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