Prescient Beings, Dirty White Horses, Happy Pale Riders

There were ample indications the foundations that subprime built were in danger long before they became anchors to be leveraged. ProPublica mentions three: Regulators who saw the crisis coming:

Long before the financial crisis claimed headlines, U.S. regulators and law enforcement officials had begun sounding alarms about dangerous lending practices and Wall Street’s headfirst jump into the subprime market. Some were brushed off by their superiors. Others led agencies like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Treasury’s Office of Thrift Supervision, which at least one lawmaker has accused of acting sluggishly to avert the crisis.

Robert Graham, a former senior lawyer at General Re Corp., faces life in prison for doing what his defense attorney calls a "few hours work" on a fraudulent deal. Prosecutors want to sentence Graham to a "substantial" term -- up to 230 years behind bars -- for his role in a sham insurance deal with American International Group Inc.

The filing frenzy is likely to continue as more bank failures are expected. . . That means "new waves of litigation could still emerge," said Jeff Nielsen, who heads Navigant's financial services disputes and investigations section. .. "One lesson of the S&L crisis is that while a bank can be seized and even reconstituted over a weekend, the resulting litigation can linger for years."