Wall Street vultures swoop in 

Distressed debt specialists, also known on Wall Street as vultures, have begun buying up mortgages, bank loans and companies that have been battered by the subprime storm. The Blackstone Group has raised $10.9 billion from investors to buy up real estate. A former Countrywide Financial Corporation executive, after working at one of the biggest subprime lenders, recently co-founded a company that will buy mortgages. A distressed debt specialist recently paid at least $450 million to buy the assets of Thornburg Mortgage, the struggling mortgage servicing company.