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There was a ton of pressure put on lenders to open up lending to people who in the old days wouldn't have qualified for a loan, both by the higherups at the lending houses and by the government, as is shown in the fannie mae congressional hearings that are on cspan and youtube.
Those crazy lending schemes were a bi product, and it wasn't just Florida retirees and California yuppies that caused it.
My niece worked for Countrywide in the DC area right out of college about 5 years ago. She told me some pretty crazy stories about their lending practices and what sufficed as credit history - they were doing no paperwork loans there too. She finally quit (before the crash) because she was so sick of the cut throat competitiveness of the lending agents. Bonuses were contingent on closing deals, it didn't matter if the deals were legitimate or not - or if the mortgage would ever be repaid.
Could have been part of the SNL skit.
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