Here is one of the consequences of the economic crisis: three-quarters of the biggest mortgage originators in 2006 are no longer operating.

Only five of the 20 biggest mortgage originators from 2006 are still around independently today. The rest either filed for bankruptcy or got bought as the mortgage market imploded in 2007 and 2008, as the table below from SNL Financial shows.

This is what capitalism looks like, kind of. Lenders that weren’t too big to fail did fail, and then got scooped up for what buyers thought were bargain basement prices — or in Countrywide’s case, managed to market themselves before the market completely collapsed.

The chart is pretty fascinating. Firms that were powerful and active not too long ago, including Countryside Home Loans, Washington Mutual Bank, Wachovia Mortgage FSB, and Countrywide Bank FSB, are no longer operating. Granted, some of these companies were acquired by other corporations but these were large firms in their own right and some were at the top in terms of market share.

My quick takeaway: business fields can change rapidly.