As far as Rush Limbaugh, the man panders to the scared.He's a hypocrite. He says "We, the taxpayers" own our government, yet he hopes the government fails because it isn't his group. But if he did indeed own the Rams, would he hope they failed if they hired a coach he didn't like? I doubt it. Then again, he's a bit crazy, so who knows.

Charles

1. Real Estate agencies don't lend money so that point is inaccurate.

2. While I agree with you that greed (yes greed by all players in this case, not just the banks, lenders & politicians but the consumer too) indeed drove this debacle into overdrive, greed was not the motivation or the root cause behind the American dream program or the CRA program which your readers have written about in their comments.

3. So what is the real motivation in my opinion you might be asking. Well, I believe that it's a lot deeper than what seems at the surface. There is a long standing policy in place by men (yes men), very powerful and rich men from wealthy and powerful legacies to become kings. Some of you will get very skeptical at this point thinking I'm just about to espouse a conspiracy theory. Well, the term conspiracy theory has such a marginalized connotation most people can't handle it. So if you're one of those then stop reading on the other hand if you are truly open to ideas then read on.

For these men the desire to be a king is not limited to the shores of America but to become kings of the world. This is a tiny and small group but more powerful than any ever. Their agenda is to have the entire world under their control and while this is a huge task it has several layers and each layer transforms itself every few years. Economic cycles and political cycles transition as their plan is put into motion. Home ownership and real estate has historically proven to be one of the greatest stepping stones to building wealth. What we have witnessed in the last 10 odd years was the systemic transference of wealth from the serfs to the kings.

Let's face it, everyone knows something too good to be true is exactly that and "man" in his infinite wisdom will let temptation get the better of him. In this case millionaires were made just as they were with the dot.com stock debacle only it was an illusion. Those who were conservative and didn't get played are still ok for the most part but those who bit into the apple, (and the power players and their sophisticated systems of marketing, media hype and propaganda knew the probability of how many people would actually bite into the apple) well they as we know have been stripped off their "wealth" – now surely there was some innocent collateral damage too but for the most part here's the scenario.

Many americans who have been defrauded of their wealth will for years have to pay a hefty price for any and everything they buy with a loan. Our economic system is so credit dependent that we cannot afford to have this huge group of people out of the economy for 10 years until their "credit" gets better so we'll definitely continue to loan to these high risk individuals for a premium. Any guesses as to who benefits? Sure the banks, sure the CEO's but ultimately the "kings".

Ladies and gentlemen we have all been played. Dumbing down of america & now transference of wealth. You have to ask, what's next?

40% of value after the fact they took 40% cash out of their house and bought cars, boats, other houses, etc…

That's not to say that people who didnt take out money or didnt over extend themselves didnt lose theit house or forced to sell at less than the owed amount (short sale) but we need to remember that this all starts with personal responsibility. Nobody stuck a gun to anyone's head and said… take that Negative Amortization Loan….