Housing crisis poses risk to US economy, warns Fed

A rising tide of late mortgage payments and home foreclosures poses considerable dangers to the US economy, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke warned anew as he urged Congress to take additional steps to alleviate the problems.

"High rates of delinquency and foreclosure can have substantial spillover effects on the housing market, the financial markets and the broader economy," Mr Bernanke said in a dinner speech to the Columbia Business School in New York.