Is exactly what I think caused the whole thing.  You only need to vet a person enough to know they'll be able to make the payments for a short while, then you sell the risk to someone else.  All this horse manure about the government "forcing" banks to lower their underwriting standards cannot explain the huge numbers of commercial and higher end loans (which were not bound by these guidelines) that were not properly vetted.  It was the usual culprit: greed, pure and simple.

by bfaul on 09/19/2008 12:00:21 PM EST

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