The whole story of the housing bubble is complicated, but beyond the easy money and lowered lending standards was an enormous amount of what could fairly be des

The whole story of the housing bubble is complicated, but beyond the easy money and lowered lending standards was an enormous amount of what could fairly be described as outright fraud. I mean, the mortgage applications were fraudulent, the underwriting was fraudulent, the appraisals were fraudulent, the titles were frauds, the bonds were frauds, and so on all the way up and down the line. In the most bubbly markets a lot of construction happened on spec, and deeds were traded among speculators who didn't really have any interest in actually living in the properties. It was nuts.