Congress is closer to passing a mortgage relief bill...

...despite intellectual and philosophical differences among Congressional Republicans, their Democratic counterparts, and the executive branch.

Put simply: The battle royale between free market forces and government intervention continues to rage ... and intensify ... in the housing and mortgage markets.

The Fed has torn up its playbook and intervened more aggressively on Wall Street than at any time since the Great Depression. And the nation's mortgage industry is moving farther down the path of quasi-nationalization.