So much nonsense being written about the mortgage problem. Much of the crisis resulted when the regulators loosened the strings, and the banks, afraid of discrimination charges, loaned out the money to people who couldn't meet the payments.

Not the sole cause, but the main one. In a discrimination-sensitive country, no one seems to want to talk about it.

See this article in the New York Post. There are others with more details, but a start is here:
Mortgage Scandal

...the Boston Fed, clearly speaking for the entire Fed, produced a manual for mortgage lenders stating that: "discrimination may be observed when a lender's underwriting policies contain arbitrary or outdated criteria that clearly disqualify many urban or lower-income applicants."

Sometimes discrimination is necessary!