The Solution to the Subprime Crisis

"...down payments are as valuable to the bank for the information they provide about the borrower's intent and financial acumen as they are for the capital itself. When banks stopped requiring down payments, people with new mortgages stopped behaving the way people with mortgages had traditionally behaved. The rules of the game had changed, housing money had gotten exceptionally cheap, and that cheap money allowed the real estate bubble to form in the first place."