In my opinion, the blame cannot settle on any one person or entity. Let’s take a closer look.

The home buyer: Many want to put the blame solely on the home buyer who took a mortgage for a house they should have known they couldn’t afford. I don’t put all the blame there, but I think it’s fair to share the blame here.

A responsible buyer would have known that if they earn $40k/year, they can not afford a $200k house. They should have looked elsewhere for a more affordable home, or continue to rent. I know that, at least in Oklahoma, there are still plenty of nice homes for $50-$100k.

The Mortgage Company: Mortgage companies share a part of this blame because they gave false hope to the buyers looking at this $200k home. The buyer may have known it was out of range, but the mortgage company says different. Adjustable-rates that stay low for the first few years (you’ll be getting raises, right?) but then start adjusting or interest-only mortgages that give the buyer no equity in their home and, in fact, will easily cause them to be upside-down not if, but when, home prices adjust downward after the balloon pops.

Some of these companies not only deceived the buyer, but also deceived the underwriter by falsifying incomes, credit scores, etc.

Financial Institutions: Financial institutions who underwrite the mortgage companies offering incentives to the mortgage companies to push as many people through as they can. They forgot to actually verify that the information the mortgage companies were sending through and verifying that they buyer actually only makes $40k instead of the $60k on the application. So, now they are stuck with bad paper and the cost of foreclosing. Not to mention, stuck with a house that they cannot sell.

The Feds: Where are the watchdogs? After the Great Depression, our banking and financial systems went through unprecedented changes to keep what happened from ever happening again. Safeguards were put in place, laws were written, committees and federal intities were created. All of this seemed to be working well. However, like the person who stops taking their lithium because they “feel better”, the government relaxed some of their rules and laws and safeguards for a few companies that we’ve come to know and love, Lehman Brothers being one of them.

Citizens: Ouch! That hurt. We as citizens, and I’m no exception, have become complacent and lazy. We allow the government (supposed to be of the people, by the people and for the people) to grow stronger in our lives and tell us what to do. That is not the way the founding fathers foresaw it. We the people are to be in charge of our government and telling THEM what to do – as a whole people, the citizens of the United States. We should be involved in our government and know what is going on. If we don’t like it, we have the right to petition, the right to be heard, and the right to change it. VOTE! I don’t care who you vote for as long as you vote as an informed citizen. It doesn’t matter if your spouse is voting opposite of you, both of you should VOTE!

So, I blame everyone to some degree. Our economy will bounce back. It always has. Even with its problems, I believe the US is the best place to live in the world. Let’s all work together to make it even better.