It is getting rough out there in the mortgage backed security market. Everybody is freezing up except the federally sponsored agencies. This was written buy the boss of Indymac Bank….

Unfortunately, the private secondary markets (excluding the GSEs and Ginnie Mae) continue to remain very panicked and illiquid. By way of example, it is currently difficult, at present, to trade even the AAA bond on any private MBS transaction. In addition, to give you an idea as to how unprecedented this market has become…I received a call from U.S. Senator Dodd this morning who seeking an understanding of “what is really going on and how can I and Congress help?” I also have talked to the Chairman of Fannie Mae this morning and have traded calls with the Chairman of Freddie Mac (Fannie Mae’s Chairman telling me that they are “prepared to step up and help the industry”).

Unlike past private secondary mortgage market disruptions, which have lasted a few weeks or so…our industry and Indymac have to be prudent and assume that this present disruption, which appears broader and more serious, might take longer to correct itself. As a result, we have seen just since yesterday, many major mortgage lenders announce additional product cutbacks…some leaving subprime, Alt-a, and other products altogether or restricting some products to only their own retail channel (and possibly wholesale) and significant, additional price widening.

The whole thing is worth reading.

H/t Calculated Risk . His post has some very good comments attached to it as always. But I am too lazy to dig them out for the rest of you. But don’t miss this chart that Tanta linked to showing that alt-a and sub-prime accounted for 40 percent of what was issued in 2006. It’s a scary world.