From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Subprime loans and the economy.

Hello again, I'm on an al-me, and this is To the Poet from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues. Americans care about most.

The head of Merrill Lynch

is among those losing their jobs as Wall Street pays the price for over-investing in subprime mortgages.

America's biggest home lender is helping borrowers to restructure their loans to avoid foreclosure,

but home prices are still going down. On to the point, the subprime debacle may cost $400 billion

twice as much as the savings and loan crisis of the early 90s.

Two million people may lose their homes.

Will there be a recession?

Should the government step in or let borrowers and investors live with the consequences of risky decisions. On reporter's notebook later on,

Argentina elects a woman president. First, here's the news. Support for To the Point comes from

subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio International Program Fund, whose contributors

include the Ford Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation.

Hello again. Mormon Alany back with To the Point. The subprime mortgage crisis may force two million people out of their homes and a small army of Wall Street executives out of their jobs. On To the Point, will there be a recession. Would government intervention make things better or worse?

On reporter's notebook, Christina Fernandez de Kurchner will be her husband's successor as president

of Argentina. We'll talk about what that could mean for other women in politics. First, this news

update. In Iraq, the U.S. has turned over Karbala south of Baghdad to Iraqi forces.

It's the eighth of 18th provinces that are

now in Iraqi control. At the same time today, a suicide bomber on a bicycle killed 29 police

officers and wounded 20 more in Diyala province, where Bakuba is the capital. Christian Berthelson is a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times in Baghdad.

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