[Rick Lee]

Supe, show me one gov't. proposal with regard to the subprime mess that would prevent it from happening again. Fraud has always existed in real estate and it was not the cause of the subprime implosion. In fact, one could argue that gov't. involvement in mortgages to begin with is what got the subprime ball rolling. Gov't. didn't get involved to help middle-class or rich folks get houses. They got involved to help folks with low cash and low FICO's get houses. They insured loans in order to get private lenders to follow suit. Fannie/Freddie are a little higher up in the food chain, but are still a gov't.-funded secondary market with the US Treasury as their checking account. Private lenders can never compete with that kind of capital. So they get more innovative in their underwriting guidelines in an attempt to get out in front of the monolithic gov't. lending. And they crossed the line with 100% stated loans for 580-600 FICO folks.