George Soros, the hedge fund legend and billionaire philanthropist, said on Wednesday the subprime mortgage crisis is likely to cause global losses of over $1 trillion. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued a similar guess, and Soros seems to agree with the assessment. What started out as an experiment in the United States certainly blew up all over the world. The net impact of lowering rates to help the financial sector has weakened the dollar and is already showing at the gas pumps. High diesel fuel costs will soon be passed to the consumer as the mess spreads like a wildfire.

The FBI, along with the SEC, recently launched a broad investigation of the mortgage crisis, focusing on, among other things, the Wall Street process of turning loans into securities for sale to investors.