Isn't it ironic that

[--Pete]

Hi,

Final person at fault is CONSUMER for being and IDIOT and signing up for this stuff without consulting financial adviser or thinking things thought.

You mean a financial adviser other than the loan officer making the loan? Because, of course, you *must* assume the loan officer is out to screw you. But how do you know that you can trust the financial adviser? Perhaps he is an idiot who understands the whole mortgage mess no better than you do. And, other than having one for an uncle, how do you go about getting a financial adviser?

And 'thinking things through', while a nice concept, suffers from the realiy of the inability of the average person to make correct change, much less work out a detailed budget for the next twenty or so years.

There's enough blame to go around. Maybe the greedy SOBs who saw a way to make a killing by abandoning the ethics of bankers don't deserve all the blame, but 'caveat emptor' is not the whole answer, either.

--Pete