The 2008 Housing Market Crisis: What Really Happened

It was only half a decade ago that our delicate economy was struck down by a housing crisis that was years in the making.  All mildly intelligent human beings understand the fine details of this major U.S. event; however, there is much we are still uncovering.  It is a simple breakdown of deceit and economics.

It all began when private lenders became a little too loosey goosey, as many economists have put it.  Thousands of working class Americans fell prey to the low interest rates and free toasters that were promised to them along with their mortgage. So everyone bought a house and a white picket fence and/or moat and began their own version of the American dream.   Life was good and houses were plenty.

Then the derivatives went haywire.  They become unregulated and people began to lose capital.  So what now?  These formerly proud homeowners now were losing money and owing more of it.  Naturally, it wasn't long before Wall Street stepped in.  They came and turned everyone's Brady Bunch into Duck Dynasty and fast.  They swooped in and capitalized off of all the homeowners' inabilities to pay their mortgages and gobbled up the remains like a ravenous toad.

 We cannot discuss the remainder of this crisis without mentioning Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

 And then there were the anti-predatory laws that the banks and government were like, "ehh, nah" about.  There was massive attempts by the government to play dumb and portray these regulatory financial laws as a Chris Hansen creation.  This failed quietly and miserably after everyone realized child predators, like Cannibals, were wrong, though technically not illegal, and laws could not technically center around them. Technically. 

So why, then, didn't anyone blow the whistle and stop this crash before it got out of control?  Simple: capital gain.  We all like it, love it, want some more of it.  If you blow the whistle, you can be a hero, like Upton Sinclair or a Liberty referee, or you can keep quiet and try to get a piece of the pie.  Pie usually wins.