"The fact that you shit heads got us to the point that we need to do so many drastic things to even have the slightest chance of accomplishing anything good." +++++++++++++++++

You can blame the Republicans for a lot, but one thing you probably shouldn't blame on them is the loosening of lending practices. Agreed, however, that many Republicans weren't sounding much of an alarm as bankers were making money in the 1990's and 2000's. Ironically, George W. did publicly discuss this, but I think with his political capital spent on Iraq, he couldn't do much about it (especially as it would have flushed his "compassionate conservative" b.s once and for all).

I, for one, clearly could not believe the sums people around me were paying for housing once I got back from Venezuela in the late 1990's. We carefully took stock of what we earned and made what I thought was a sound choice in housing cost only to see many friends of similar means in relatively better digs. I couldn't believe the lack of verification of income and bank accounts that happened when we bought our second house after a move. It was almost instantaneous approval. It occurred to me then that we weren't manipulating the system, but it certainly wouldn't have been difficult to do so.

When you had people here on shaky incomes buying houses, and people in California making $150,000 a year and buying $500,000 places in the Bay Area, it didn't take a genius to figure out that something was wrong.

People need to buy what they can afford. Use the 25% of gross income or 33% of net income rules of thumb for monthly payments and take only fixed rate mortgages. Anything else is just as greedy as anything the bankers have done. Frankly, I'm more than a little ticked off that after playing it carefully, I'll now have to ante up some of my own tax dollars just to pay mortgage relief for those who didn't. That's not any sane kind of Socialism; it's corruption.

Makes me mad enought to go listen to some more Krokus (Eat the Rich, et tu Brute).