"Predatory lending" vs. "grow up"

I hate to tell people this, but there is nothing predatory or unfair or dishonest about lending that may end up not working out great for you. The fact that you made a bad decision about a home loan and hurt yourself doesn't make you a victim. It means you need to be more careful.

If anyone signed the 80 pages of home mortgage paperwork, after having them explained for two hours as legally required (and having initialed that you had it explained and understood) and still signed without understanding them, you're an idiot. Why would you do that? Then to pretend that you were somehow a victim and someone else needs to pay, and you need to be bailed out is immoral and obnoxious.

There were people who did wrong and caused the mortgage crisis (wait till you see round two!). Namely, the congressmen who crafted the Community Reinvestment Act that forced ultra high-risk home loans, then beefed it up to make it riskier, then beefed it up to hold a gun to banks' heads and force them to comply -- these congressmen should go to prison. Frank, Dodd, you know who you are.

The rating agencies that looked at meatloaf mixed with sewage and certified it as steak should be prosecuted.

Home buyers who took out ultrahigh-risk loans based on hope and greed and silliness should be ashamed and suffer whatever happens to them.

Organizations like ACORN that did everything they could to get as many people as possible to believe the loans would work out ok, even without an income or savings should be prosecuted.

Let's not forget Bill Clinton, who sent Attorney General Janet Reno and HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo after banks, threatening to shut down their branches, fine them, or even prosecute them for "redlining" if they continued to not offer ultra-high risk loans to poor people.

Virtually the only ones who did what they were supposed to were mortgage brokers (land sharks), who are constrained by quite a few laws and I believe generally obeyed them. They didn't need to break the law. Buyers were acting insane and creating a feeding frenzy.

This time was not different. Prices go up and down. People still need to act like they have a brain. People need to know what they're signing. There are very few no-lose propositions.