Buzz, Phantom, you guys forgot about Barney Frank, and Chuck Schumer, who legislated that Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac MUST make those loans (to unqualified borrowers). Or, as Chuck Schumer put it so well "...otherwise, how will people who can't afford a home ever afford one...". There is the real 'poster child' candidates of the whole credit default swap debacle. Sure, Goldman Sachs has a great degree of culpability, but with those CDOs "selling at such a premium", they just couldn't help themselves. Plenty of greed to assign, all the way around...