...It was the Community Reinvestment Act, a law written and passed by Democrats, later propped up and promoted by Bill Clinton, which forced these banks to lend money to folks who did not have the means to pay the debts. Democrats placed their own Party Operatives in charge of these institutions, and they, the Democrats run them into the ground. These operatives during this time returned the favor by paying off their cohorts in Congress with campaign contributions, cash to look the other way, to keep the regulators off their backs, to block legislation introduced by Republicans which could have put a stop to this nonsense. They blocked legislation introduced by McCain back in 2005, which basically predicted this crisis before it happened! The biggest receipients of these campaign contributions were all Democrats, the biggest, Democrat Senator Chris Dodd, Banking Committee Chairman, this is the man who never let McCain's bill out of Committee, wouldn't even allow it to the Senate floor to see the light of day. The 2nd biggest receipient of all-time is Barack Obama himself. The management of these corrupt companies in the meantime made out like bandits, falsifying their accounting and giving themselves departing bonuses, golden parachutes if you will. We have Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson both former CEO's of Fannie Mae and both current advisors for Obama. We have also have Jamie Gorelick, a former Fannie Mae board of directors member rumored to be in the front running for Attorney General should Obama become president. All of these people received 10's of millions when they left Fannie Mae, knowing full well that the ship was sinking, because they were the ones that cooked the books. They are all corrupt and should go to jail...