The U.S. subprime mortgage mess escalated into a full-blown global financial crisis Thursday - making credit harder to get from Paris to San Francisco.

Early Thursday, France’s largest bank stopped letting clients take money out of several of its funds exposed to U.S. subprime loans. The European Central Bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve then intervened, flooding their banking systems with cash to keep interest rates from spiking as lenders around the world slammed shut their loan windows.

“What you’re seeing is a classic credit crunch,” said Christopher Thornberg, a Los Angeles economist with the firm Beacon Economics.

So what if “we’re watching the unraveling of a global real estate financing bubble,” or that said worldwide unraveling risks “what could become [Germany's] worst financial crisis since the 1930s,” or that SEC regulators are “checking the books at top Wall Street brokerage firms and banks to make sure they aren’t hiding losses” even greater than we know about?

What, us worry?

Credit-card companies target people fresh out of bankruptcy with credit offers, according to a study that found that nearly 100 percent of more than 300 families surveyed had been offered new credit cards within a year after completing Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings.  

A gated 78-house development is being purchased by the University of California, Riverside, in an effort to lure professors with subsidized housing.

The Creekside Terrace homes are about a mile from the university. The deal with Fidelity Homes is in escrow but it still needs approval by the U.C. Board of Regents. A vote is expected soon.

The cost is estimated at more than $30 million, but it won’t be disclosed until regent approval. Twenty-four of the homes are nearing completion.