Who will get stuck with the subprime bill?

As this self-made Wall Street mess continues to unravel, stories about individuals losing their houses are popping up on a daily basis. I am sure that there has been no shortage of predatory practices in the industry but with vast majority - 89% according to the Center for Responsible Lending - of the subprime loans made to existing home owners, it is a fair question to ask, "what were they thinking?" Congress is now talking about putting in place regulations, years too late to have any impact on the economic crisis that this is triggering, but having regulations in place for this sector is basic common sense.

So now that this flimsy system is crashing under its own weight, everyone is looking around and wondering what to do. Should buyers who heard what they wanted to hear and lived well beyond their means get relief? Should the subprime lending companies get bailed out since they represent well over $300 billion in the economy? Should the Wall Street names such as Morgan Stanley, who loaned the money for a quick buck and just reported 70% profit increase, be held accountable? Should tax payers and those who didn't fall for these schemes pay?

Ultimately these lending "get rich quick" problems are the problems of those who participated, both buyers and sellers. It sickens me that those who should have known and could have done something - Republican Congress, SEC, Wall Street, Greenspan and the Fed - did nothing while this was building up. All Americans (and well beyond in our global economy) are going to pay a price for this as the hard landing hits. Housing prices will stagnate, jobs in construction, banking, etc will all suffer which will be another problem on an economy already burdened with an expensive war.

Bush and the GOP loved selling America on the home ownership boom which was based on pie-in-the-sky economics and get rich quick ideas from top to bottom but like Iraq, they failed the American public by ignoring obvious problems. Too many buyers bought into excitement of riches and failed to think about the hard realities and what-if scenarios. If anyone is going to foot the bill for this, let the buyers, the lenders and those who financed the lenders work it out but there is no reason at all to involve everyone else who either did the right thing and borrowed what they could or who stayed on the sidelines. I hear Morgan Stanley did pretty well with their investments which included subprime money, so go ask them. Maybe Greenspan can help out since he has so many ideas and seems to be cashing in these days.