So are you part of the crowd that believes Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson when he says that the subprime mortgage slump has been contained? If so, maybe you should pay a little attention to what is taking place over at Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) where troubles there are pointing to signs that things are not only worsening, but are spreading across many areas of the market.

As Douglas McIntyre pointed out earlier this morning, Bear Stearns, which had two hedge funds collapse last month due to the subprime mortgage crisis, was forced to block investors from pulling out their money from a third fund today.

The subprime market has been creating a ripple effect of problems since the start of the year, but today's development is a big sign that these effects are working their way into other areas of the credit market as well. According to a Bear Stearns spokesmen, Russel Sherman, the fund in question today, The Bear Stearns Asset-Backed Securities Fund, has less than 0.5% of its assets ($900 million total) linked to subprime loans.

If we can believe Mr. Sherman that the fund is only exposed to the subprime market in less than 0.5% of its assets, then what seems to be the problem here? More than likely, we are seeing the signs of weakness leaking out of the subprime mess into car loans, credit card payments, and other forms of consumer debt.