clipped from www.nytimes.com

“This whole thing, I have to say, is tremendously unfair, that it hit. But it did hit, and what do you do now? You make the best of it.”

For more than a decade, even before he was named a governor of the Federal Reserve Board in 1997, Mr. Gramlich was warning of dangers in the housing market, a stance that has made him a sought-after expert in the current crisis.

As chairman of the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, he urged legislators to better protect consumers against predatory lenders, and toughen regulation of mortgage lenders and banks. Nonetheless, his efforts met resistance within the Fed and on Capitol Hill, and even he admits he could have pushed earlier for reform.

Still, in June, he published a timely book, “Subprime Mortgages: America’s Latest Boom and Bust,” that has linked his name once more to the home loan situation, which he says he never could have expected would become so dire.