by Cynthia Harlan

Created on: November 04, 2008   Last Updated: February 10, 2009

The current financial crisis was powered by the de-regulation of the financial industry voted on by Congress, the poor lending practices that some banks and mortgage lenders adopted and the greed of those who saw a booming market as a way to get rich quick and not by the poor as some might suggest. No one had the forethought to look ahead and ask: "what would occur if the housing bubble suddenly burst?"

Now the truth is easily brushed aside by those who are truly responsible for the mess we are in today. Congressmen, in a race to get their party elected to the Presidency, pass the blame onto the financial industry. The financial industry passes the blame down to the investors who made a fortune by selling their "get rick quick with real estate flip over scheme" to anyone willing to buy into it. Finally, the blame passes down to the person, with less than perfect credit, who was sold a nightmare wrapped up in "the Great American Dream" that we all are brainwashed into believing exists.

It is this "little guy" who is now blamed for our economy's state. He is the one who purchased a home without the means to pay for it. It is his fault that he didn't read the bottom line; the one that told him that his payments would more than double in just a few years time. It is his fault that the market bottomed out so that he couldn't even sell his home to get out from under because it was no longer worth even the amount that he still owed on it.

It is so easy to blame the poor person chasing a dream, instead of the rich and the greedy. But the truth is that there is enough blame to go around. The people who bought beyond their means make up only a small percentage of the people who lost their homes to foreclosures. And, it wasn't those foreclosures that caused the current financial crisis.

Instead, it was the investors that bought up these mortgage- backed securities. When the housing industry's boom turned into a bust; the value of those securities plummeted. They were no longer worth the paper that they were written on. Many major financial institutions that held on to those securities were forced into bankruptcy. Others had to depend on the government to bail them out.

The result of these ill-conceived financial dealings was a credit freeze. It is this credit freeze that is now threatening to throw this country into the worse recession than it has seen in years. Without the ability to obtain credit, businesses will cease to function. Small business depends on it credit line to meet their day to day expenses. Large businesses too will find it difficult to operate efficiently. If the freeze continues, this country can expect to see a rise in both the inflation rate and the unemployment rate.

The blame game is just camouflage. Those in power, the rich and the greedy just want a fall guy for the mess we are in today. The poor are an easy target. But all you have to do is look at the statistics to know that the poor guy is not the one responsible at all. If so, you would find that Mississippi, the poorest state in the country had a higher rate of foreclosures than one of the richest states in the nation, California but that isn't true at all.

It is time to stop playing the blame game. In the end, it really doesn't matter whose fault it is; what matters now is that we find a way to fix this mess. More importantly, we should learn from our mistakes and never let this happen again.

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