TAL Does the Mortgage Mess

One of the best treatments of the financial disaster I've seen or heard, done by This American Life. The transcript is here (warning: long pdf).

When my cousin in the mortgage business told me a couple of years ago that if an applicant could fog a mirror with their breath, they got a loan. Turns out, he was describing the older, stricter standard:

Then the next one, came along, and it was no income, verified assets. So you don't have to tell the people what you do for a living. You don’t have to tell the people what you do for work. All you have to do is state you have a certain amount of money in your bank account. And then, the next one, is just no income, no asset. You don't have to state anything. Just have to have a credit score and a pulse. Actually that pulse thing. Also optional. Like the case in Ohio where 23 dead people were approved for mortgages.

Here's where I reveal my inner scrooge. Everyone wants to rant about Wall Street villains and congressional malfeasance. Yeah, they deserve every bit of it. But what about the people who took those loans? They were getting something for nothing. And losing their houses? Let's rewind the tape and play it back by the old rules. Under that scenario, they would never have had a house to lose in the first place. My fingers are going to get tired from all the pointing.