Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve also to blame for high foreclosure rates?

    I'm not sure about other areas, but here in North East Ohio the foreclosure rates are through the roof.  Everyone is blaming these sum-prime lending companies, which they do share half of the blame and they are bad news.  However what everyone fails to acknowledge is that, when Alan Greenspan and the Fed started raising interest rates a few years ago, the economy wasn't as rosey as they made it seem.  The economy was bad here in NE Ohio and I remember thinking to myself "What in the heck are they doing raising interest rates in this environment?"  Every time Greenspan would raise the prime rate by 1/4 percentage point, that shot up the sub-prime adjustable rates.  The Fed and Greespan should share half of the blame for this housing market mess.  The sub-prime lenders are the devil, but Alan Greenspan and the fed were the Grim Reaper who delivered the fatal blow to the housing market - it was their decision to raise rates and in turn, they provided the vehicle for these sub prime lending companies to raise their rates.  I don't buy into the fact that they said the economy was doing good then and I don't think the economy is any better now.  Greenspan is out of the picture now, but it seems to me the job market and housing market is just a real mess in NE Ohio.  I think we are heading for some really bad times - at least for the common working man.  You can drive around alot of areas and see the boarded up homes around NE Ohio.  What is more disturbing is that, within the last month, I've noticed a leap of "For Sale" signs out in the front yards, which tells me people are hurting.  The stock market and decision makers seem to have turned a blind eye to what is actually going in the real world - maybe this is because we are starting to see the elimination of the middle class and the gap widening between the wealthy and poor?  Curious to hear opinions on this matter.....

Chuck M.