Who is to blame for the current mortgage crisis in the United States?

Do you blame the banking industry, Alan Greenspan, home buyers, real estate speculators, etc.? I'm very curious what your opinion is. Thank you.

Who do YOU blame for the DotCom Bubble in the stock market? Who do YOU blame for the wild "Ostrich Market" a few years ago when they were microchipping eggs for thousands of dollars? Who do YOU blame for the Great Turnip prices thousands of years ago?
Thruout history you can find examples of "herd mentality' causeing a mania over something and the ONLY thing different is that this time the product was real estate.
Instead of assigning blame; which gets you nothing other then wasted time; how about doing something productive and trying to identify WHY these things happen and how this WILL affect you in the future.
Regardless of WHO you blame for the current market; the cold harrd truth is that EVEN if you KNEW EXACTLY what was going to happen and WHEN it was going to happen, you could NOT prevent people from doing stupid things. If you were President Bush and tried to control the morgage market ; you would have been seen as "socialist", "the rich protecting their turf on not letting the small investor participate in the greatest real estate market we have ever seen", "this is a free country so why is Big Brother preventing me from making money in real estate?".
The realtors were ONLY doing their job of helping people buy what they say they want to buy and getting paid for it. Lenders were ONLY doing their jobs and SELLING a product.
The real blame is the people who gambled on a high risk loan with terms they SAY they didn't understand but the truth is that they KNEW they could not afford the loan but wanted it as an" investment".

It is easy to attach blame. All participants are to blame to some extent. some lenders went overboard in extending credit to sub prime clients. but other lenders were more prudent. Some home buyers went overboard in financing homes that they could not afford, simply because they thought they could sell the house for more when that ARM interest increased. But not all home buyers bought unaffordable homes. Many are still paying the mortgages that are within their ability to pay. Some speculators went overboard in buying up homes to flip, then suddenly found that prices sagged. The least to blame is the FED or the government, in my opinion.

The blame is to be shared.

The buyers for not reading what they were signing and making sure that they understood what their responsibilities were. Or for failing to hire an attorney to represent them if they didn't understand what they were signing.

The predatory lenders for loaning money to people who clearly could not afford what they were buying. And for using contracts there were so incomprehensible that many attorneys can't figure out what the actual terms are.

The attorneys who wrote those contracts.

The Realtors who pushed unsuitable properties on unqualified buyers and pushed them to predatory lenders and brokers in exchange for kickbacks or other consideration.

The mortgage banking industry for failing to regulate their own.

Congress for failing to pass laws to protect borrowers from the worst abuses.

The right wing mindset that it's "Every man for himself, we don't need no government intervention."

The banking industry.
Since the Fed kept the rate so low for so long, home sales were beginning to slow. The banks began offering mortgages to people who would not normally qualify with their credit rating. To protect themselves, banks sold variable rate mortgages to those who maybe didn't understand how the whole thing worked. Sure, there's the "buyer beware" thing, but by and large, his was a way for banks to get more money.

Banking Industry
The MortageLenders
Govt.
since they can hide data & free loans to customers who cant pay loans back.
& those Home Buyers who LIE to get loans if any.