[Porsche-O-Phile]

I don't disagree with you at all. I'd say 99%+ of the blame for this falls squarely on the shoulders of the borrowers, but there was plenty of bad behavior all around.

I'm certainly not letting the lenders off the hook though - they were stupid enough to originate these loans and they are going to be the ones that croak as a result.

I completely agree with you in principle that "if people just met their obligations, there wouldn't be a problem", but to ass-u-me that everyone is going to do that - particularly the most historically indiscriminate members of society using "liar loans" and with lousy credit histories - is just looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. Enter the concept of "risk management" which was completely absent from mortgage origination the last five years.

Frankly I think bringing back the debtors' prisons might not be such a bad idea in this country. If that's what it takes to get people to think twice before using debt as "funny money", maybe the ends would justify the means. . .