Readers suggested a topic on subprime lenders. "Are Mozilo and the other subprime lenders the Devil, and has the loss of folk wisdom by Americans gotten them into the HELOC/cash out refi mess? I refer to the old idea that the Devil isn’t a powerful being who can coerce people into giving up their souls (like the government), but rather someone who has to trick them into doing it (like a businessman)."

"The devil will give you worldly goods, power or knowledge now but later…well, we’ll worry about that later."

"Stories of this type demonstrated an age-old skepticism by Americans of those offering something for nothing, and asking people to sign a contract. Americans expected to have to work for things, or give something up to get something else."

"Very different from 'genie' cultures where three wishes are offered with nothing in exchange. Of course, in many countries like that poverty borne of years of low effort was suddently reversed (for some) by oil popping out of the ground."

"The argument for Mozilo being the Devil: in each case a person has an illiquid asset with a temporarily inflated value — houses with values puffed up the housing bubble, or the souls of the greedy. Both the Devil and the subprime lenders offered a way to monetize the inflated value of that asset before it depreciated back to a realistic level."

"The case against the subprime lenders being the Devil is this…in none of the 'deal with the Devil' stories was Satan ever accused of disguising the eventual cost of the up-front benefit."

A reply, "People (vast majority) can be brainwashed and one can create a culture that makes people very susceptible to, or easy victims of, propaganda. Maybe we have that condition whereby people are very easy to brainwash in the areas of politics, economics (finance) and investments."

One noted, "Many Americans have evolved into people manipulated by soundbites. Whoever applies the sound bite with the strongest emotional power wins the dollars from these people."

"People who can think past sound bites become immune to the manipulation and end up with the dollars."

One said, "I don’t believe anyone needs 'coercion' to enter into the arena of 'the devil.' Man is lead of his own lusts–innate. It takes power to resist 'the devil.'"

The San Francisco Chronicle from California. "Roger Abraham stands in his driveway, one hand holding the newspaper, the other sweeping across the homes on Brentwood's Solitude Street. 'This one,' he points, 'this one, this one.' All empty."

"Hundreds of families have lost their homes to foreclosure since the beginning of last year, and in a sign of more to come, at least 1 out of every 16 households has received default notices."

"'Brentwood is kind of the poster child for what's going on in the housing market,' said Howard Sword, the former community development director. 'We were so active in the years where the subprime finance creative tools got rolled out, we were issuing like 1,400 to 1,600 building permits a year.'"

"Dave Myers, was the first buyer at Trilogy at the Vineyards by Shea Homes, closing in October 2006 for around $750,000. The unfinished amenities and housing downturn have chopped 40 percent off the value of his home, he said."

"'Trilogy was advertised as the place 'where dreams take flight,' he said. 'Well, pretty much they've flown away. We're now the house on the dirty hill that doesn't have any trees, and doesn't have any vineyard, and doesn't have a clubhouse.'"

"On the horseshoe formed by Margaret Lane and Handel Way, about 15 homes have been resold, foreclosed or traded for less than the value of the outstanding loan, said Dave Thornton, who bought on the block two years ago."

"In the struggle against blight, he had taken to mowing the patch of lawn between his driveway and his erstwhile neighbor's. He recently gave up, deciding it was less trouble to let it die. The line where green turns to tan now marks the property line."

"Thorton and his wife moved to Brentwood in 2006, thinking they'd found the quintessential little-town neighborhood for their three children. 'When we first moved in, there were a lot of good people, neighborhood watch types,' he said. 'They're all gone. There is no sense of community here.'"

The Daily Page from Wisconsin. "Alicia Emerson always dreamed about owning her own home. But what she bought was a house of cards."

"Looking back on her experience, Emerson realizes she was too trusting of promises made by the Minnesota-based mortgage company that approved a $248,000 loan for her and her boyfriend even though their joint income was less than $50,000 a year. Now she gets it — she signed up for a subprime mortgage."

"'They told us we could refinance when the construction was finished with a negative amortization mortgage, which would make our payments between $800 and $900 a month,' says Emerson. 'But when the time came, they told us that kind of loan was no longer available, and our payments were going to be $1,700 a month. There was no way we could afford that.'"

"The hot housing market fueled an explosion of high-risk subprime mortgage loans. People with no down payment and an income too low to qualify for a standard 'prime' mortgage found they could get a home loan with a low introductory interest rate and the promise that they could refinance when that rate expired."

"Underlying this whole scheme was the assumption that the housing boom would never end and houses would continue to increase in value. It was a bad bet."

"Last year, many subprime borrowers discovered they couldn't refinance because their houses had lost value, so now they owed more than their properties were worth. This caused a nationwide spike in foreclosures — nearly 1.3 million in 2007, an increase of 79% over 2006."

"Emerson and her boyfriend moved into their new Mount Horeb house in August 2006. Faced with payments they couldn't afford, they tried and failed to find a house mate. They also tried selling the house, and found they couldn't do that either. They were trying to refinance to a loan with lower payments when Alicia's boyfriend lost his job."

"She ended up taking out a new mortgage in her name alone, from a different lender, with payments of $1,100 a month. She also took out a second mortgage for $28,000 to help her catch up on other financial obligations. Then, Emerson and her boyfriend spilt up. She was left with a house and a mortgage she could not afford."

"'It was awful,' she recalls. 'I was living in the biggest mistake of my entire life, and I didn't know what to do about it.'"

"Before a foreclosure sale was scheduled, her house was purchased from her mortgage company as a 'short sale.' She thinks the buyer got it for about $100,000 less than its market value."

"Emerson has moved to Georgia, where she hopes to make a fresh start. But her troubles are not quite over. Although the short sale satisfied the first mortgage, she still owes about $30,000 on the second mortgage. She's consulted with a bankruptcy lawyer to try to get that debt reduced, but she may have to declare bankruptcy."

"One thing's for sure: Emerson has lost all interest in becoming a homeowner again. 'After all that's happened,' she says, 'I've decided that renting is not so bad.'"