> a large number of people made poor choices Is it really a poor choice to buy a house? Should people have known that banks were intentionally misleading them?

> a large number of people made poor choices Is it really a poor choice to buy a house? Should people have known that banks were intentionally misleading them? The banks are the ones that should have been telling potential homebuyers that they weren't qualified, but they weren't doing that. Yes, the banks were also incentivized to make that kind of loan, but creating the derivative products that intentionally obscured the high risk of those loans and reselling those products as "low risk" derivatives is definitely on the banks and ratings agencies.