Actually they weren't.

The root cause really was greed. And for those who think this hit out of the blue, there were signs not long after the subprime crap started. Some state governors went to the Fed and expressed their concern a few years ago. They were told to butt out by Bush appointees who had allowed relaxed regulations and oversight at his direction.

This debacle really has its roots in the same deregulatory nonsense that brought us the S&L crisis and then Enron. So forget socialists-- they're mostly harmless (that doesn't include tyrants who abuse the title). We have hypercapitalists to thank. And I'm sure they'll act again. As sheepish 2-party voters we seem to enable it.