Seems the credit crisis is on everyone's mind, if not blog, these days. So I will not contribute to the cacophony of lengthy new opinions on the matter, especially since I am not a financial analyst and so may be seen to have questionable credentials. :) Nonetheless, I have good instincts for self-preservation (comes from being the youngest in my fam), and feel I can't just say nothing on this topic, in the same way that if a house is on fire, I can't just walk away and let "someone else" call 911.

I already blogged a dire warning about the US dollar's problems (though I feel it's more our trade deficit and competition for oil that is responsible for that than anything else; it's just the subprime and other related credit crisises magnify the problem), but I have found out there in cyberspace a dearth of understanding of just how the subprime mess even could have happened. It seems apart from knowing that people with really bad credit got loans they shouldn't have been able to get, the details of why banks thought they could do this sort of thing seem absent most people. So here it is, the explanation. (If the one reference to a math formula in the article makes you wince, don't worry, it's the principles in it that are important.)

Ok, that's it. No more. I will refrain from this topic from now on. Or at least, I'll try.