I think people need to wake up to the fact that the sub-prime market losses were 600 billion.
The 'sub-prime' mess by itself would have been covered by the bailouts up to this point. What people don't realize is that the credit default swap market is what is dragging the whole f-ing system down.
Its not just 'sub-prime' market. Think of it this way. If you bought a house between 2004 and 2006 and put 20% down you are now underwater, congratulations for being responsible.
Now, the sub-prime borrowers drove housing prices up somewhat. What drove prices even more than anything was debt securitization via a AAA conduit like AIG that basically said 'get us any loans possible, we don't care who we lend the money to'.
Look at the Indy Mac report that was done to investigate its operations.
There were loans that defaulted BEFORE THE FIRST PAYMENT was even made! No checks on credit score (believe it or not) no check on appraisal, no check on income verification, no check on that you had any legal issues before, no checks on anything. Indy Mac didnt care 1 bit, Wall St. was taking any trash loan it could get its hands on.
I'm sorry to say, but if you keep lending 20 bucks to friends that never pay it back, thats your own damn fault. Yes, you are a turd if you keep borrowing without paying back, but one would assume that if you do that enough times you just don't get a loan the next time.
Borrowing behavior hasn't changed over the last 80 years.... lending behavior has, dramatically.