Thank you for pointing out where the larger piece of the funny money pie went. I was specifically addressing what you said here -

"I was trying to explain to those on the board who blamed the American home buyer..."

- when I said:

"I think in legal terms, what happened is termed "fraudulent inducement" and 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 - were fraudulent from the beginning and thus null and void. Furthermore, those who accepted the mortgages under fraudulent conditions were not the guilty party - they were suckered and manipulated into buying into the promise of a better life for themselves."

If we are to focus specifically on the "scapegoat" logic of the right leaning US media which spins the position of "blaming the American home buyer" - specifically the lower income segment which was often featured in the commentary - then that logic could quickly be countered with the "rule of law" argument that I presented without even leaving the discourse presented.

People have been living beyond their means mainly on credit for decades now with the main culprit being real wages stagnating as the US turned into full empire mode post WWII(with a short period of rising standard of living for the middle class for a couple of decades starting in the 50's) and some would say - hyper accelerated when we went off the gold standard in the 70's(which unhinged the financial/monetary system from any kind of check and balance on its growth since fiat money allows the government to print money ad infinitum.) The flood of imported goods sold at lower prices combined with people living on credit has been the offset that has allowed the paradigm to ensue and maintain its position vis-a-vis artificial life support. John Q doesn't own the cars he buys, nor the house he owns nor many of the possessions he/she purchases on credit. In reality, the "ownership" society is an illusion for the most part since finance is only lending ownership at interest. To maintain such a setup without addressing the real issues of wage stagnation while furthering the perpetual growth/empire model requires the manufacturing of complex financial instruments like derivatives and mortgage backed securities. That is why the free market is a bunch of huoy - it is manipulated, managed and controlled every step of the way. And the more repressive state measures and concentration of power in the executive is the only recourse it has to maintain the ship on course.