That is the dumbest thing I have heard.

These borrowers knew what they earned, and they knew that they could not afford a $500,000 home on a $60,000 income.

They chose to try and live like their brother in law, or their buddy from school even though they could not afford it.

I am sick of all the cry-babys, you made the bad choice now deal with it!

I am not in favor of an all out bailout because there are greedy people who we all know like to live above their means and as far as I am concerned they should loose everthing they have. However, I do know there were many first time buyers who were misled by greedy loan brokers and appraisers and were hurt very much by predatory lending. Why should'nt the lenders be required to offer a decent fixed rate to these people and hopefully help instead of hurt people. I am a construction worker who has invested in real-estate and done very well. I knew 5-7 yrs. ago this was happening yet our polititions act as if are surprised that this happened. This is another S&L scam where our highest public officials or their buddys steal from the less fortunate. We need a very well organized group in this country to recall and remove on a daily bases any politition,judge, or any official who does not truly represent the American people. They all, and I mean both political parties, represent their personal and financial interests at the demise of this great country. We need to wake up and take our country back before it is to late. Sadly, I think it is already to late. They now lie, steal and cheat and look at the American people and say: What are you going to do about it? We need a third party, funded the same as the other two, to begin to remove these dictators from office. Wake up people remove any politition who fails to do the job they swear to do.

Mixed bag, some knew and some didn't. Given valuations, it's mostly the former. When this is over the historians will determine that it was pure greed and the vast majority were well aware of circumstance. It was simply an opportunity to turn a fast buck. Buy now, flip later. This is the root of the problem. The people shown on AOL protesting un-fair lending may well have been victims, but I think most VICTIMS will be on the low end of the market and should have went through HUD. As far as I know there have been no allegations against this agency, except for it's head man and those are not mortgage related. If this is the case than these people already knew that they could not float a loan through HUD and therefore, are just as guilty as the fool that made it. While this group is out there it is a small portion of the money. The money was in the upscale and these people would not qualify under any circumstance. All about wishing to live well above ones means and the real reason that bail outs are required is that the people that are economically responsible are likely to be sucked into the vacuum. This started as a mess and is now working it's way into a depression in making. It's slowly killing the economy and the job losses are rapidly mounting. Combine this with fuel and food cost, loss of municipal taxes, retirement funds evaporating, bank failures, loss of consumer confidence and the picture gets bleak. My main question of the last two years remains - where did all this money come from? It is just to massive to be domestic only. There is more to come - and it's all bad news.

I'm sorry, but if someone was borrowing 500,000 dollars or more, he or she SHOULD HAVE BOTHERED TO READ THE DOCUMENTS THEY WERE SIGNING!

They have NO ONE to blame but their own greedy incompetent selves.

Every government official,bush,house,senate,federal reserve pushed home ownership.I couldn't get a loan, and neither could my father, because we didn't make enough money in the big three.when the crises started, you didn't have to prove income.As ceo's make millions for being morons, the public has to bail them out. Hang them all!

The real culprits here are banks and lenders who basically threw money at people expecting to make huge profits on loans that wowuldm adjust up in interest. The banks tossed all the safety measure out the windows and offered crazy loans and now they want to blame any body and every body because they are taking losses. The truth is, banks and lenders have control over the home buying process and therefore control over the market. Home prices did not shoot up through the roof until banks started offering ARM's and hybrid loans with low initial rates. Now, as we speak these same lenders are purposefully with-holding mortgage money out of the market to force home prices down. Banks and lenders have been given way too much control over the market; they should be tightly regulated and interest rates on SFR's should be capped at no more then 5%. The average home loan last about 5 - 7 years; figure out what a bank makes at that rate for five years on a $500,00 loan, plus they get their principla back when the loan pays off. This whole thing was fuled by greedy banker and lenders and now they want us toi bail them out.

Look, everyone knows that banks are greedy. The real question is, why were borrowers so stupid?

I'm sixty years old and have filled out my share of financial statements for many banks and a few mortgage companies. Never has any bank or other official ever reminded me to be perfectly accurate in reporting. Actually it usually comes down to my banker saying, "Don't worry, it's just for the files."

This would be a good subject for your next blog. Poll people to see if my experience is unusual.