Indeed, "the proximate cause lay with profligate lending practices." And the 'great' merchants of these practices were the Democrats themselves. It was under Democratic administrations that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac (The most populist of names) and the Community Reinvestment Act were established that enforced the banks to these lending practices.

And on the crucial measures introduced by the Bush administration that could have prevented the “easy” loans that fomented the present economic crisis (Easy come easy go) that were provided under the Community Reinvestment Act, the Democrats in Congress as late as 2005 voted against them. Barack Obama (The transnational darling of the goodie goodies liberals.) as community organizer was threatening to sue banks if the latter were unwilling to provide these loans to non-credit-worthy customers. And regrettably many Americans are losing their houses and their jobs now--because of the allure of these easy loans that were provided by the good intentions of the Democrats on the credo that all Americans, irrespective of their credit worthiness, should have their own houses. The way to hell is paved with...

http://avant-gardestrategies.typepad.com

Ouch, Ouch, Ouch, US economist Paul Krugman has won the 2008 Nobel Economics Prize.