Rep. Elijah Cummings quotes NY Times Pulitzer Price writer Thomas Friedman.

"So many people were in on it: People who had no business buying a home, with nothing down and nothing to pay for two years; people who had no business pushing such mortgages, but made fortunes doing so; people who had no business bundling those loans into securities and selling them to third parties, as if they were AAA bonds, but made fortunes doing so; people who had no business rating those loans as AAA, but made fortunes doing so; and people who had no business buying those bonds and putting them on their balance sheets so they could earn a little better yield, but made fortunes doing so.

Cummings - why would anyone give a mortgage without requiring info on borrowers income or assets.

Syron " these loans were developed in the first place for you might call er borrowers who have special characteristics er i.e uneven income flows, actors er waitresses"