Housing Bust Fuels Blame Game - WSJ.com

"Subprime was initially aimed at people with weak credit. But by 2005 and 2006, lenders encouraged many types of better-off borrowers to take such loans, including people with large incomes who wanted to speculate on rental housing. Many subprime loans were made to refinance low-income people who already owned homes, often loading them up with more mortgage debt and creating the risk of foreclosure.

Government-sponsored companies that buy and guarantee mortgages also joined the subprime fray. In 2002, the Bush administration began criticizing the companies, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, saying they were 'trailing' the rest of the mortgage market in terms of their financing of homes for low-income people and minorities."