A Billion Here & A Billion There . .

. . . and pretty soon you're talking about real money. As in a trillion smackeroos.

That is the amount the International Monetary Fund predicts that loses stemming from the U.S. mortgage crisis may approach in citing a "collective failure"’ to predict the breadth of the crisis.

Falling U.S. house prices and rising delinquencies may lead to $565 billion in mortgage-market losses, the also IMF said in its annual Global Financial Stability report. Total losses, including the securities tied to commercial real estate and loans to consumers and companies, may reach $945 billion, the fund said.

More here.

Cartoon by Signe Wilkinson/Philadelphia Daily News