Who's to blame?

I believe that unregulated lender's were the biggest factors in our recession. Lender's gave out loans on houses, that was their role. These lenders saw home value's on the rise and started lending money as fast as they could. The problem was that the loans were subprime and nobody was underwriting the loans. Anyone could get a mortgage even if they couldn't pay it back. When people could not afford to pay these loans back, lenders started to forclose and sell cheap decreasing the value of all homes. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/08/congress_mortgages.html

These lenders failed when they didn't recognize that home values couldn't continue to rise. They needed tougher underwriting to assure borowers could afford the loans. We can't put all the blame on the lender, we the consumer were also guilty trying to live beyond our means. I still think the lenders greed and fast paced lending was the main problem. Almost like they painted an unrealistic picture for main street America.