Here are the links BJL posted, a MUST READ for the historical perspective of how we got into this housing loan mess. Reading through them I remembered all of that going on, as it was relevant to my early home-buying years. When Ray was posting about the 'liar loans' I thought that was more recent but now I remember the increase in home purchase activity of about 12-15 years ago based on lower down payments, less underwriting etc.. If you strip away the friction of 'who dunnit' you can see it was a poor mandate all around, well, you just need to read the articles, especially the first one below. I didn't realize back then, how much pressure was on the banks and Freddie/Fannie to produce these loans.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=307149667289804
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/?pageId=75717