A new report issued today by the National Bureau of Economic Research indicates that the present severe recession is much more than simply a subprime mortgage crisis. No doubt the government's policy of applying pressure to mortgage lenders via FannieMae and FreddieMac to lend money to those unable to afford mortgages was a major contributor to the financial meltdown. However, the NBER report indicates that the problem is much deeper. In order to understand the problem one must become familiar with a little-known entity by the name of REPO--the Renew Sale and Repurchase market for collateralized securities: