Sure Wall Street has its share of the blame to take, but it is just a piece of the pie.

Apart from greedy fund managers we have:

Greedy mortgage companies clearing bad debt as good secure in the knowledge they could sell it on.

Greedy mortgage brokers desparate to make the sale and collect their commissions knowing there would be no repurcussions.

Greedy real estate agents steering their clients towards dodgy financing.

Greedy buyers who just had to have that Home and Garden house for $600k on their $70k salary, and had to have it NOW.

Greedy homeowners who wanted the TV/car/vacation of their dreams, using their home as a piggy bank.

And lets not forget our greedy government, desparate to pump up a false economy based on rampant consumerism and credit in order to appear fiscally capable. But of course, our government is incapable of living within its means too.

Oh and by the way, it's not just subprime that is hitting the skids. Alt-A and Prime, supposed to be good, is faltering too. Because guess what, even people with good credit get greedy and want more more more, now now now, so they lied about their incomes and stretched to "buy" that trophy home.

It's the culture stupid. And it is getting time to pay the piper while the fat lady sings.

My greatest fear is that the Democrats will choose a candidate based on some ephemeral idea of "electability". That is how we ended up with Kerry. Picking a candidate based on how you think other people will vote is a waste of time. There is a huge swath of the country that will never ever vote for Clinton, Obama, Edwards or anyone else, just because.

Best to go for the candidate that you honestly like the best, because chances are lots of other people will feel the same way. It is possible to overthink the whole thing.

Yeah, I know that Israel is the only Jewish state in the region and in fact the world, and I know that it was used in a sentence following the name. I was pointing out the fact that its use was gratuitious. Distinction of its religious base was not a necessity in the sentence it was used in, nor was there a need there to distinguish it as different from its neighbours at that point in the narrative. I very much doubt that a single person reading the article did not know that Israel was the "Jewish State" and if the assumption was that there would be, then a matching assumption would have to be that those readers were so uninformed that they would not also know that the majority of the surrounding countries are Muslim.

Does the author call the countries in the region by their names - Kuwait, Oman, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt and so on but follow Israel with the title "the Jewish State"? Why not follow the name Saudi Arabia, whose constitution details Sha'aria as the law of the land, with the moniker "the Muslim State"?

Lets keep things professional, use official names on an equal basis and drop the monikers, can we?

Other than that, I am not a fan of Americas policy in the region but the subject can't be properly served in a letter, or even in a two page article. I think Kamiya tries to do too much here and spends too much time quoting cherry picked authors rather than really analysing the situation. Then again, I don't believe he is qualified to do so.

OK, we are all going to die, probably younger than we could because of all the crap we are exposed to but older than if we were born 100 years ago. I give up and I am just going to get on with things until I kick the bucket.

But so too as someone mentioned are adjustable ARM's.

Also, Alt - A and Prime no-doc, no money down loans (no money in the game, who cares).

Also, enormous amounts of mortgage fraud.

Let's just put it this way - untrammelled greed, keeping up with the Jones's and mass psychology as well as unlimited credit chasing the "American Dream" of consumerism.

Plenty of stories there to keep us busy, and the bankrupt can burn the papers for warmth this winter.

Obviously I am an internet luddite because I didn't know about the site previously. An interesting read and some very revealing letters.

One thought - although a person might be quite happy to share all of the intimate and mundane aspects of their life with complete strangers, after death their memory belongs to the living, who might not be quite to open. If the friends and family of the deceased prefer not to have their loved one insulted, outsiders should have some respect for that. The letter writer who inferred that those most happy to dump insults probably have not lost a child is likely correct.

Plus, most of these are kids, of course they didn't think they were going to die, kids tend to have an air of invulnerability.

Yes, I am aware that there has been a Hispanic presence in this geographical region since the Conquistadores.

The point was about adopting the generic "American Culture" of consumerism.

So the Hispanic community is now assimilating well and adopting the American tradition of turning all distinctive life stages into an experience of mass consumerism.

It fits in nicely with over the top Christenings, huge Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, excessive Sweet Sixteens, Bridezilla and "wedding planner" stage managed mega weddings and $30,000 funerals with copper caskets (I hear personal mausaleums at $150k a pop are back in vogue).

Let me just welcome our Latino cousins into the American Way of Shopping.

I have ever seen this percentage of starred letters under an article.