Deconstructing Countrywide

As the Obama administration launches a new bank rescue plan and prepares to overhaul the financial regulatory system, lawmakers will look closely at the lending practices of major banks and mortgage firms. But some think they also should probe the government-chartered Federal Home Loan Banks, which served as lenders of last resort as the credit crunch intensified – propping up the very banks that made the kind of risky mortgages that led to the housing crisis in the first place.