Until recently, most mainstream economic experts—including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke—have suggested that the widespread and serious problems in the subprime mortgage market, while a problem for the holders of subprime borrowers and their communities, would have a minimal impact on the larger American economy. However, a number of recent economic developments—including this summer’s credit crises in global financial markets, driven almost entirely by fears about the collapsing American subprime mortgage market, the accelerating slump in housing markets across the country, and the startling August jobs report—have made it increasingly clear that the economic spillover from the subprime mortgage meltdown is unlikely to be contained to one sector of the economy.

The Joint Economic Committee, will investigate the economic threat that the subprime mortgage mess poses to the broader economy, and to help us learn more about the kind and size of economic problems this crisis may produce going forward.