And another culprit are the GREEDY BANKING INSTITUTIONS in AMERICA that wrote those risky mortgages to begin with.But even that was at the ADMINISTRATIONS request,YES BUSH and CHENEY'S eight years.Funny the banks never lent to persons with NO CREDIT HISTORY before,and NO DOWN PAYMENT before,all you really needed was a heartbeat to get a mortgage,in fact I had to move from my once lovely neighborhood on Long island because all the riff raff was moving in and they didn't even have to work for thier homes like I had to,and my parents had to I think you get the picture.

It started with the Financial Services Monderization Act, passed by the Senate by a vote of 90 to 8 which sepcifically exempt so-called derivatives from regulaiton and signed into law by President Clinton. If Fannie and Freddie hadn't guanenteed theses "sub-prime' instruments (hello Barney) we wouldn't have had nearly as sever a problem as was experienced/still experienced. So, after the blams game is over let's tell Washington to get their act together or WE will do it for them come next November. Stop sepnding China's money or the "Reserve Currency" will no longer be that of the US dollar.

One can only wish that Greenspan would finally go away as he should, disgraced. But his type don't do that. He helped to start the mess we are in abetted by the likes of Frank and Dodd with their back room shenanigans vis Freddie and Fannie. And, then there was the poster child for Acorn, the community organizer Obama, who led the activists harrasment of banks to lend mortgage money to the masses who could never possibly make the paymnets. All the while, the Clinton policy laid the perfect groundwork for the house of cards to tumble. And, it did bigtime.

We all can blame anyone you want, however it was everyone's GREED that got us into this mess with the REALESTATE people who were GREEDY to get any sale at any way possible and now we all are paying the price of greed. Blame who you want but we all need to search inside ourselves and ask the question, "how much did I contribute to this mess.

YOUR ALL MISSING THE POINT!!!!

Mr. Greenspan is being thrown under the bus a little bit here.  The problem with blaming Greenspan is that the premise is based on an assumption that someone could have done the job better.  The fact is no person or groups of persons can effectively manage money supply let alone an entire global economy.  Human nature dictates economic law, and that my friends, is unmanagable.

The blame rests squarely on the back of John Maynard Keynes.  Keynesian economics gave us deficit spending and and debt based economy.  Until we return our economy back over to the free market and return to a sound money system, we will continue the volitale boom bust cycle that is simply a reality of Keynesian economics.

Don't blame the players of the game...blame the game itself.  Keynes is the culprit, not Greenspan

The present government should play the "ouija" or do a seance! Then ask the J. Keynes', Paul Samuelson's, Milton Friedman's and John K. Galbraith's spirits what to do (if all last three are dead). They will find a solution and know better than all the greedy jokers that caused all this mess (Clinton, Greenspan, Wall St., bankers, Democrats, RE buyers, etc.). Shame on their students!!!! They went to college but college did not go to them. By the way, avarice and usury are forbidden in the Bible. Amen.  

no Galliano....

BUSH instigated the push for ALL (even those entirely unqualified) to become Homeowners.....no matter what.  Clinton started the deregulation of the Banks, also encouraged by BUSH to continue the economic boom and a house for all.

johnny, you really think that keynes could rescue us all?  please explain, what would he do differently?

How about we blame ourselves.....and not just American consumers....anyone, anywhere who ever bought something they couldn't afford......houses, cars, non essential material luxories.  Corruption, poor oversight, lack of regulation all contributed to this mess, allowed it to spiral out of control, but if everyone excerised a measure of personal responsibility, there would never be a problem to begin with.  There is a fundamental problem in this country regarding  understanding basic financial concepts, which is exhibited by a negative savings rate (up until recently) and the fact that we spend more than we earn (avg household credit card debt).  Until we straighten that out, problems will continue.

I wish Alan Greenspan would keep his mouth shut !!! Everytime he opens it, something BAD happens. Why doesn't he just stay (Supposedly) RETIRED ??? Or at least I think he is supposed to be ????