Albeit this is somewhat old news: The so-called "foreclosure crisis." Gwen Ifill hosted a very interesting "Big Picture" discussion on this very topic February 1 on PBS. There was a bit (maybe a lot) of hollering at the TV taking place in my living room. Although most people seem to want to blame the lenders who made an amount of money with questionable loans, I truly believe about 99% of the blame lies with the homebuyers themselves. One man said that he was the child of immigrant parents, implyng that it was not his fault that he did not understand the terms of his loan. (And he's probably wondering why we want to build a fence to keep his kind in their own country). Another whined that he wished the mortgage officer would have taken more time to sit down with him and make sure he, the buyer, fully understood the terms of the loan he was aggreeing to. I nearly threw up from shock.

Two points:

1. Ben and I are the descendents of immigrant grandparents. Yet my husband, with only a high school education at the time we bought our house, (and those dreaded immigrant genes!) was able to buy a book about homebuying and educate himself on the matter.

2. Lenders are not in the business of making sure you understand the terms of your loan. That's your responsibilty. They are in the business of making as much money as they possibly can from interest on your mortgage. It's a big, bad world out there and you cannot expect someone to hold your hand through every financial risk you take. So there.

One man on the panel made a very interesting point that I have been trying to make for years: There is a disturbing lack of financial education in this country. High schoolers have no idea what to save, how to save, how to invest, how credit works, etc. The only education I received in the matter was a worksheet on how to write a check - given to me in the 5th grade. I, like most people, had to learn about credit and interest and how things work the hard way - by getting in over my head with credit card debt in college. I partly blame the school system and I partly blame parents and I partly blame the individual. Maybe if our schools weren't so busy passing out condoms and requiring pro-lesbian summer reading, they would make "Personal Finances 101" a required course. I wish that colleges would ban credit card companies from their premises (Sign up for XYZ card at 30% interest and get a free T-shirt!) with the same alacrity they do conservative speakers. Finally, I wish parents would take more responsibilty for educating their kids about financial matters and that average kids wouldn't be too lazy to educate themselves on the matter.