Congress appears ready to take a look at the subprime lending crisis and the role of predatory lending in destroying the financial lives of Americans. According to the Realty Times:

At the hearing, held on February 7, 2007, Senator Dodd heard from two homeowners who were targets of abusive business practices. Delores King, who has owned her home in Chicago for 36 years, may lose her home due to an exotic mortgage she was duped into signing by a telemarket mortgage broker, she says. North Carolina native Amy Womble faces a similar plight after a popup Internet advertisement led her to a broker that intentionally misrepresented her income in order to secure a home loan she could not afford, she testified.

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"The system is out of balance." said Dodd. "There is a chain of responsibility that makes these abusive loans possible. I look forward to working with each link in that chain -- the brokers, the bankers, Wall Street, the regulators, the Congress, and the Administration -- to help restore this balance for the sake of the homeowners who are being victimized and to make sure that subprime credit can, once again, play a constructive role in the marketplace."

It appears to me that a large number of mortgage brokers and bankers took advantage of the ignorance of working people and seduced them into mortgage products that were completely inappropriate for them. Whatever happened to bankers having a fiduciary responsibility to their clients? From reading the new book Maxed Out, it seems that the banking industry preys upon people's lack of financial education to generate fees and sell products that are just not good for their clients.

John Bogle has spoken out about the abuses in the mutual fund industry, which are driven by the same self-serving motives that fuel unscrupulous bankers. Perhaps this crisis in subprime lending can lead Americans to take a look at the way the banking industry works, and demand changes.