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One interesting turns of events in our economic downturn has been for conservative pundits to place blame on "poor people". Poor people consist of the current mortgage holders, prime and sub-prime, who are struggling. While these people are a part of the picture, they are far from the owners of this crisis.

There are seven sources that bear the brunt of the burden for this situation:

1) Construction Industry Players

Falling interest rates and loosened lending criteria prompted existing contractors began to build at an exponential rates. This building boom created jobs, increased employment rates, and placed upward price pressure on the market while creating an oversupply of houses on the market. The vacant home rate as a percentage of overall homes on the market doubled over 10 years from 1996 to 2006.

2) Lending Practices for Existing Home Owners

Financial institutions discovered a new frontier for their products in the form of home equity lines of credit and 2nd or 3rd Mortgages. Primary residences for long-term home owners were marketed as a source of personal wealth and a means to reduce credit costs while increasing cash availability. Banks encourage homeowners to pull out all their equity, under the presumption that with home values would grow.

3) Change in Regulations Pertaining to Loan Origination

When the refinancing boom ended in 2003, the mortgage industry needed an new revenue stream in Loan Origination. In order to reduce the dominance of such government sponsored agencies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a significant amount of deregulation that allowed for non-conforming loans. This did allow borrowers who historically might not have been deemed credit worthy to enter into the loans. However, lenders actively encouraged these new borrowers to borrow.

4) Incentivized Loan Origination

In order to earn and additional premium, the brokers would steer the consumer into the loan most productive to their bottom line, rather than the best interest rate or most favorable term loan for the consumer. This practice increased the risk that the consumer would lose equity-building power. Race played a factor. The HDMA statistics indicate that while African Americans account for only 8 percent of home refinance deals, they represent 19 percent of the sub-prime loans. When screened for credit worthiness, close to 40% of those loans could have originated outside the sub-prime market.

5) Allowance of Low-Documentation Loans

From 2001 to 2006 the share of US sub-prime loans

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