Reply #5: Ownership Society.

[moondust]

Seems to me that the housing industry was about the only thing keeping the Bush economy from tanking for several of the past eight years. To keep it that way one might imagine something like an "ownership society" to encourage and maintain a steady stream of buyers. But that meant more and more buyers who were less and less creditworthy. So the credit standards got lowered to accommodate them until some places were handing out mortgages to people without any verifiable income.

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that the pressure to keep lowering the credit standards and handing out ever more risky mortgages came right from the top.