If you think subprime was bad, wait until “prime” hits. The whole mortgage market mess is going to get much, much worse, according to a report in The New York Times.

The paper reports today that although the first wave of subprime mortgage defaults is peaking, a second and far more damaging wave of defaults in building – this time in the alt-A and prime mortgage brackets.

Alt-A mortgages in arrears quadrupled to 12 percent in April from a year earlier. And delinquencies among prime loans, which account for most of the $12 trillion market, doubled to 2.7 percent over the same period.