Speaking of mortgages...

Ben Stein:

Now, the holders of subprime collateralized debt obligations are whining and complaining about the fall in their bonds. But what did they think they were buying? Why did they think they got those higher interest rates? They were called “subprime” for a reason. It was adolescent behavior to think they could both have higher returns and not have any greater risk than the prime mortgage space. (And it was pure magical thinking to think that risk had disappeared from issuing mortgages to unqualified buyers, or that if you put a lot of unqualified buyers together into a pool, the risk would somehow be eliminated — as if you had put a lot of dogs together and expected some to be cats.)