Very good points, MaineDog and Sorcha.

I really doubt that relaxing rules to avoid the appearance of discrimination was an important factor in this mess. I think that the lack of ethics and skills on the part of greedy lenders is a greater factor.

My newspaper had an article about the plight of people who have been renting places which are going into foreclosure. The lenders (mortgage companies) order them out, sometimes with ten days notice.

Consider this. Here we have a tenant with a good record who is living in the property, and the mortgage company throws them out because 'we are not in the rental business.' The money is sitting right there, and they are too stupid/rigid to do business.

These lenders are not businessmen, they are cheats, and their crooked deals are falling apart around them.

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When the house next to me burned, I tried to talk to the company (1000 miles away) which held the mortgage. It did not have a phone number. It had an 800 number, and if I had a mortgage I could enter a code to activate their phones. But the company did not have a straightforward phone which somebody answers. Is that shady, or is that shady?