>> if you consider deregulation the starting point (I do).
>>
>>As you should have known, I don't.
>
>Sincere question: What single "thing" do you consider to be most culpable for the mortgage crisis? Not a 13 point list (no cheating).

PMFJI, In a single word "Greed".

Many home buyers wanted more home than they could really afford. As a builder friend commented "We're building homes anymore, we're building mini-mansions.

Realtors steered people to higher priced homes because their comission is based on price. We bought a new house in 2003. The realtor could not believe that we wanted to buy a house near the bottom end of our market. He kept saying, "You guys can afford twice the house, it's a great investment".

Mortage brokers/banks were willing to sell any kind of loans to anyone. The brokers got their fees up-front, then sold the mortgages.

Fannie/Freddy/Banks packaged the mortgages into bonds and sold them to investors. F/F/B collected their fees and, again, passed the risk to the bond purchasers.

Bond purchasers took a chance on MBSs because they offered a higher interest rate than any other "safe" bonds during that time.

It was basically good old capitalism.

Just my $0.02