by Calculated Risk on 6/16/2008 05:00:00 AM

Alec Klein and Zach Goldfarb at the Washington Post present a three part series on the housing boom and bust. Here is the second part, The Bust, discussing the beginning of the housing bust. The third part will be released Tuesday.

On Feb. 27, [2007] ... Federal Reserve ... officials remained unruffled. They privately calculated that even if subprime losses were severe, the dollars involved would be no more than a blip in the overall economy. As late as June, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke spoke via satellite to a conference of international economic officials in South Africa, predicting, "the troubles in the subprime sector seem unlikely to seriously spill over to the broader economy or the financial system."

Ahhh. Memories of containment.

The full series, with some interactive timeline and other resources is available here.

Note: Tanta receives a nice mention in the resource section.