It is late July as I prepare this article. So far 104 mortgage lenders have gone out of business, declared bankruptcy in hopes of starting over, or stopped subprime lending. Economics and the ripple effect tells us for every job lost we see an effect on four others. Communities feel the effects. I personally think what we are seeing, referred to as subprime, is actually a broader issue which touches prime mortgage lending and mainstream America. Some experts think otherwise, or at least that is what they tell the general public.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the meltdown in the subprime mortgage market reflects a reassessment of risk that doesn’t pose a threat to the economy.

“I don’t think it poses any threat to the overall economy,” Paulson, a former chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., said in an interview today in Washington. “Risk is being repriced. As we get a broad reassessment of risk, we are getting volatility.”