Steve asked:


In the push to “get the government off our back” and “let the free market do its job,” Washington eliminated virtually all regulations on energy companies, and later did the same thing on mortgage providers (and more specifically, those who buy and sell mortgages).

Energy deregulation led to Enron and skyrocketing consumer prices.
Mortgage deregulation led to the current meltdown in housing.

Which was a bigger failure?

Christopher asked:


The recession was caused by people being unable to pay back their home mortgages because the mortgage rates were too high?

Banks were not getting their money back from home owners, causing a credit crunch, thus they were unable to lend money to big businesses.

Big businesses then had to cut back on expenses and began to lay people off the the thousands.

So what caused the mortgage rates to go up so high that started this financial mess in the first place?