Appeared on July 7, 2007
The delinquency rate for subprime loans rose to 13.8 percent in the first quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. It was 11.5 percent a year earlier. When the collateral in residential mortgage bonds is impaired, ``nothing will undo the losses,'' says Joseph R. Mason, associate professor of finance at Drexel University in Philadelphia. ``It's a static pool of investments, a brain-dead trust.''