The factors involved with the current financial mess we are in include the Housing Bubble do not forget. You talk about banks behaving badly. The whole mess in the housing market was brought on by the progressive entitlement mentality that everyone should own a home and no one should rent. So back in the Clinton era, they in acted policies that forced lenders to sell these subprime mortgages to individuals that could not in no way afford them. So saddled with all of this toxic subprime mortgage paper, well you know what happened. The bubble broke and the real estate market is yet to recover.