CNNMoney: Risky loan business thrives

You lost your job, defaulted on your mortgage and you figure you'll never get a loan again.
A blemish on your credit history used to destroy your chances of borrowing money, but a booming high-risk loan market offers an alternative -- for a price.
"This (business) has created credit for people who never had it before -- and that creates buying power and jobs," said Bud Ward, a banking analyst at Ernst & Young.
Known as "subprime lending" in the industry, the high-risk loan business is booming. Most subprime borrowers are people with good credit who suffered a financial crisis: they lost their jobs, had a catastrophic illness or went through a divorce. They've defaulted on a mortgage, amassed suffocating credit-card debt or declared personal bankruptcy