How did we get here?

There's an interesting article from the 1999 New York Times, that tells us alot about the possible cause of the current housing crisis:

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2008/09/25/1999-ny-times-article-revealed-true-cause-current-fannie-mae-crises

Let me preface this by saying that, as a long-time licensed mortgage professional, I remember this moment in time because it opened up more sales opportunities for us -- but we (the good guys, anyway) remained diligent in our efforts to help qualified borrowers obtain housing. We still had to run the applications thru several underwriting levels before obtaining final approval.

More importantly, this still did not guarantee that new homeowners were going to be budget conscious and not live beyond their means. Alas, this last comment, in my professional opinion (gathered by years of analyzing consumer credit profiles) contributed greatly to the sudden increase in mortgage defaults. All the more reason why it's so important to teach our children at a young age about budgeting concepts and how to balance a checkbook.

I'm curious to hear your side: when did you learn how to balance a checkbook, and who did you learn it from? And have you ever been in credit difficulty? Was there a particular reason why you got there, and what have you learned from it? Thanks for your serious contributions!