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

Home loans and easy money till times get hard.

Hello again, I'm Arminolny, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International.

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

Subprime mortgages with no down payments are advertised as the road to home ownership for families

who can't afford regular loans. They often gamble that they'll be able to refinance after the

house goes up in value, but before new interest rates and higher payments kick in. Now the housing

market is cooling off. The formula

is failing to work for more and more people. Foreclosures are up and they're likely to increase

even more. On to the point, we'll hear from a subprime homeowner who's caught in a squeeze.

Do risky loans to millions of susceptible borrowers threaten the whole economy? Also today,

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed says he killed Daniel Pearl.

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. MacArthur Foundation.

Hello again. I'm in Alney. Back with To the Point. When the high-tech stock bubble burst, shareholders lost money.

As the subprime mortgage market declines, people are losing their homes. On To the Point, we'll hear how it works, what can go wrong, and what it means for the rest of the economy.

First is news update. Today's papers report the written confessions of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,

who says he was not only the mastermind of September 11th, but also responsible for 30 other

terrorist attacks and plans to attack. Today, the Pentagon says part of his story had been

...