Yep. Banks were allowed to bundle and sell their mortgages to Wall St. Since banks could sell these mortgages they were no longer financially responsible for them defaulting, so they didn't care who they handed them out to. So we ended up with a whole lot of people getting mortgages they could no longer afford. These toxic mortgages were labeled as a safe investment and dumped on the market as credit default swaps. Who needs financial regulations when we can just turn the stock market into legalized gambling? Worked out great as long as you weren't invested in these credit default swaps when the music stopped.
Well you got a good chunk of it right.
However, you neglected to talk about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
You see, after a bank or mortgage company creates a mortgage they need someone to sell it to so they can get the money back and get the funds to make another loan. Those mortgages are sold on the *SECONDARY MARKET*... Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae are and were the MAJORITY of that market.
Now, there are 2 types of loans. Conforming & Non-Conforming loans. Conforming mean that they fit the guidelines set by Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae. And those companies happen to be quasi governmental agencies subject to the legislation from the government. It was these entities that lowered the lending standards allowing the banks to make and sell no-document loans, etc...
Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae were forced to make a certain percentage of their loans to low income and disadvantaged people. They had to loosen the standards to comply with these legislative rules.
So, with no doc loans, etc... EVERYONE got greedy. It was social engineering gone wrong. And the American taxpayer has got to pick up the check yet again.