Marketplace Lenders - the Future or a Flash-in-the-Pan?

``Freddie Mac's Office of the Chief Economist takes an intensive look at marketplace lending in the December issue of its Insights and Outlook.  A marketplace lender (ML) is a non-bank intermediary that provides one or more types of consumer loans, usually on line.  Some but not all rely on peer to peer lending (shorthanded as P2P lending by Freddie Mac) and some concentrate on niches such as debt consolidation loans or small business lending.  Some of the more well-known examples are Prosper, a peer to peer lender, and Lending Club, the first ML to announce an initial public stock offering. ''