The takeaway from this graph is not simply that we’re having a crisis, but that, quarter-by-quarter, it’s actually accelerating. It’s not as if the foreclosures hit a high level last year and stayed there; rather, with each new round of data, we’re finding that the rate of foreclosures actually increased over the quarter that preceded it — a quarter when we already thought we were in crisis. This following chart takes into account data released today in the latest U.S Foreclosure Report, bringing us all the way through the second quarter of 2008:

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Not a good trend.

Ezra Klein is a former Prospect writer and current editor-in-chief at Vox. His work has appeared in the LA Times, The Guardian, The Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Slate, and The Columbia Journalism Review. He’s been a commentator on MSNBC, CNN, NPR, and more.