who is responsible for the sub-prime mortgage failures?

Answer 1

The people who defaulted on their loans. You don't think anyone else is responsible for them spending money they could not afford do you?

Answer 2

The ONLY people to "blame" for the subprime failures are the people who SIGNED the loan paperwork. PERIOD. This is STILL America, the land of oppurtunity. If you take out a loan that you can't afford then it's YOUR fault. The "lenders" who some here love to blame were NOT to blame. You can go to ANY town today and get a "title loan" or a "payday advace loan" that charges you ENORMOUS interst rates; do you see anybody yelling that those guys should be shutdown?
This is quickly become the land of NO personal responsibilty. It is NOT your fault that you broke the law; it's your parents fault or the schools fault or because you came from a "disfunctinal family". BS.
When people LIE on their applications to qualify for a house they can't afford, it's THIER fault. Subprime lenders were SALESpeople trying to SELL a product. If you bought that product then look in the mirror.
People gambled on the real estate market shooting thru the roof and interest rates to stay low FOREVER in order to let them "make more money in a few weeks then they made all of last year". THAT was NOT investing, that was gambling. Just like the dot com bubble, the last to the party got killed but now the "herd" want somebody else to blame when they did not do the research they needed to.

Answer 3

That would be the sub prime lenders themselves. They are mortgage companies that make loans to people that cannot secure them from a mainstream lender.

They are usually fly by night outfits that collect fees up front for making these loans to people that don't have good credit, not enough income and too little money to get into the house to begin with. These people were turned down by others for a reason.

They get qualified on some ARM loan or something stupid like that and they can barely make the payments. The rates go up over a period of a few years and then let us not forget those pesky things like taxes and insurance. Some lenders do not require Escrow and the bills come due yearly and the homeowner is not capable of making them either.

Answer 4

Subprime lenders who made loans to people that had no hope of affording them and consumers who signed on for these loans with disregard of practicality.

If you make $9 an hour at Target, you cannot afford a $500,000 house.

Alot of people want to point the blame at lenders, but pie in the sky consumers wanted these loan and got them. Now they have lost the house. What a shock.

Answer 5

In many cases, the lenders who gave loans to people whom they knew, or should have known, wouldn't be able to keep up with them, especially the dishonest lenders who didn't really explain to people just what their loan meant, for example the implications of an ARM.

The borrowers who borrowed more then they could afford, and just hoped something would happen to keep them afloat, are also of course responsible.

Answer 6

Investors

Answer 7

The Republicans!!!!