Judging from this statement: "if we lived in a system which respected the "rule of law" - then the mortgages which were granted to people who normally would not have been eligible for mortgages because they represented a huge liability..." I'm sorry to say, but your perspective is the same as the rest of the American Public who still don't get it.

American depositors' or the investor/parasite's money was not granted indescriminately to John Q; yes some segment of the public got caught up in 'house flipping' and to a lesser extent there were some fraudulent mortgages granted to a few unqualified and unsuspecting home buyers, but the majority of the money went to Real Estate Developers. The entire globe was caught up in Reagan's Semite economist supply-side economics theory.

Donald Trump abandoned his development in Baja; yet no one is taking away his home and Americans remain glued to the boob-tube every week in celebration of his business model; Bank of America recently bulldozed an entire housing development in California's Inland Empire; KB homes face several law suits for constructing homes on abandoned military sites littered with un-expired/exploded munitions; these scenarios are duplicated all over the globe, need I remind you of Iceland's incredibly unrealistic Real Estate prices back in 2008.

Foreclosure isn't new to the American consumer; the American consumer did not bring down AIG those claims were made by Investors and Developers both of whom went in with their eyes wide open, and should have been allowed to collapse on their own weight.