I am a Realtor in Huntsville Alabama. I have helped people who needed to get a mortgage at 90%- 100%. I didn't have any who had any intentions of not paying the money back. However, as a Huntsville Alabama real estate professional, I could see there was a payday coming in our economy. I am not saying I am very smart, but there were warning signs. An economics major I go to church with told me a year ago to watch out. He said the melt down was coming.

We have been watching this bubble build as our financial gurus ran things into the ground. This country has enjoyed great prosperity, becaouse we are masters at recirculating the money. It never fails that greed creeps in every few years and sometimes it only affects a very few. At other times it affects everyone like the serious recession of the 1970's. There was greed from everyone in the meltdown.

The government benefited by putting their thug buddies in charge. The CEO's benefited by falsifying the books to get their hundreds of millions in bonuses and telling the public that everything is good. Those of us who earned a living on commissions were happy about the increased business of the housing bubble. There weren't many people who didn't benefit financially from that period of time. We all wanted to look the other way ignoring all the warning signs.

When we push to the breaking point it breaks, when we inflate too far it bursts, we build on sand it washes away and when we charge too much there comes a day to pay back. We could all say that faulty loans are to blame, but why were they faulty? It overall is very simple. The government wanted all American to have the American Dream; so they forced banks to relax the standards. Essentially, mortgage companies only needed the good word of someone to give the loan. Many people over extended themselves in the process. This wasn't just the low wage earner. It went all the way up the pay scale. The system didn't require people to live within their means and we all broke the rules of binance.

We will pay for this for several years with higher inflation, likely a recession and job loss across the conuntry will be how we pay. The next president and congress will have their hands full just keeping a sluggish economy together.

The answer is simple. We must go back to sound financial principles. 1) Solid Credit Scores 2) Collateral equalling 20% down 3) Good oversight (this is where the failure usually begins).