Where is the block for all the dumb-ass people who were too stupid to do basic math and consumed their way into oblivion? Time to put the blame back where it belongs—on the guilty.

--by Diogenes

I think that a lot of people are to blame. We can start at the bottom of the list with all the individuals out there brokering mortgages who have no business education, no ethical standards, no certification, and fat commissions as incentive to broker deals between lenders and people who can't afford a flat-rate, fixed-term mortgage.

Then I blame lending institutions who come up with these mortgage plans that no person in their right mind would ever consider agreeing to in the first place, so that people could "get in and get out" in a short period when the market was hot so they would accumulate enough cash on the sale to use as a down payment on the home they really wanted to buy with a flat-rate, fixed-term loan. Entirely too many people signed on to these kinds of mortgages without realizing that these notes were NEVER meant to be long-term loans—and shame on the brokers who did NOT tell them this.

Then I blame investment houses with fund managers who bought all this bad paper, bundled it up, and sold it to both foreign investment houses and foreign banks—realizing a nice profit for their fund and for their investors (and pocketing their fat commissions, of course), all the while knowing that eventually this paper was going to "go bad" and negatively impact economies around the world. If people think that America isn't liked because of the war, they should read what people around the world think of our investment companies bringing down their economies and collapsing their banks. Funny how the American media isn't touching that story. I blame the American media.

I don't blame Alan Greenspan or Ben Bernanke. Their job at the Fed was/is to keep money flowing in a way that stimulates business growth in America and keeps the U.S. growing and competitive in the world marketplace. They have done that.

I blame Congress for passing bad banking laws. For eliminating the usury laws and letting the credit industry in general write their own ticket.

--by OaklandWoman

You forgot the media. They created a relentless drumbeat of negative stories on the evening news and in the print media. It almost seemed like they wanted a recession because of their partisan political beliefs.

--by Red