Paulson expresses regret for financial mess

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson isn't exactly taking the blame.

But he did express regret for a lot of errors that led to the biggest financial crisis in seven decades. Still, he insists the Bush administration is pursuing the right course in addressing these problems.

In an interview on Fox Business Network, Paulson said, "We're not proud of all the mistakes that were made by many different people, different parties, failures of our regulatory system, failures of market discipline that got us here."

Truth be told, there's plenty of blame to go around.

You could start with the over-eager lenders who threw rules - and sane thinking - out the window in their rush to give loans to people who in many cases didn't have jobs, let alone the ability to make mortgage payments.

Other more marginal borrowers who did have jobs were also given loans. But many of them were certainly not able to keep up with their monthly mortgage payments once those payments began to reset at higher levels.

And a large piece of the blame goes squarely on the shoulders of borrowers themselves. Granted, some may have been issued loans without getting a full explanation as to how they would eventually ramp up with higher payments.

But others - many of whom should have known better - simply jumped in without any kind of due dilligence. They just saw a piece of the American Dream and grabbed it.

And now we circle back to the lenders. As increasing numbers of these loans began to default, mortgage lenders saw their revenue streams - and their liquidity - begin to dry up. Federal regulators should have jumped in long before all of this hit the fan. And when they finally did jump in, it was too late.

Now taxpayers are footing the bill for a massive bailout plan and a dire economic situation that has sent economic shockwaves throughout the financial world.

Great way to head into the holiday season.