Originally Posted by wowitsdark

I'll be bold and say that I think it's both greed and ignorance. A guy in a slick suit looks sophisticated and as though he 'knows stuff', and he tells John No Job that yes indeed, he can afford a $400,000 home! Mr. Suit obviously knows stuff. I mean, after all, he's a banker and has a nice car out in the parking lot and so if he says I qualify, alrighty then, show me the money!

There were people who didn't have the wisdom to see through the flash. They saw their friends getting bigger and better stuff and assumed that they, too, must know something because after all... they were able to acquire stuff! They couldn't get stuff if somebody smart didn't help them, right? And if somebody smart said they could afford a loan for a house like that, then obviously I must be able to afford one, too!

People without a lot of financial savvy were being given money. It's rather like that family that got the hosue through Extreme Home Makeover who mortgaged it and now must sell it. If people who don't *get* how money works are given the responsibility to manage money that they haven't yet earned, it's really a recipe for disaster.

So is the Barney Frank part true? Anyone know?