"Why didn't they see this coming?"

From the Sacramento Bee:

Restrictions in a homeowner rescue plan proposed by Sen. John McCain would likely block thousands of struggling Sacramento-area borrowers from participating, analysts say...The proposal would exclude borrowers who used 100 percent financing during the housing boom and possibly all who received loans without documenting their incomes. It also prohibits investors.

In the Sacramento area, such restrictions will rule out massive numbers of borrowers who need help, some said Wednesday. "I would say there's not going to be a lot of homes in that basket," said Scott Thompson, partner at Mortgage Resolution Services in Carmichael.

From the Sacramento Bee:

[I]t's hard competing against the collapsing Dow, rising unemployment and a financial crisis that appears resistent to bailouts. Anxious consumers are increasingly tight-fisted, putting off purchases and staying away from stores. "People are just scared," said Paul Atwal, a sales associate at Aquamarine Jewelers on Marconi Avenue. "They have money, but they don't want to spend the big bucks. They say, 'I may lose my job.' "
...
In a sign of tough times, he said, more people are coming in to sell their jewelry for scrap gold than buy it.

From the Wall Street Journal:

All of you who rent -- a respectable American tradition -- can look forward to buying more cheaply in the future. Take your time.

The housing disaster-in-motion was widely reported, complete with warnings, before the crash. But every word fell on deaf ears, because bubbles are never about reason, cool calculation and courageous politicians willing to risk defeat.
...
To the extent that the bailout shores up existing home prices and its paper, it delays the inevitable. It does not assure the early return of buyers.

From the Washington Post:

[A]s news organizations chase exclusives about the Wall Street meltdown, they also are grappling with a troubling question: Why didn't they see this coming? "We all failed," says [Charlie] Gasparino, a former Wall Street Journal and Newsweek reporter. "What we didn't understand was that this was building up. We all bear responsibility to a certain extent."
...
[T]he business press never conveyed a real sense of alarm until institutions began to collapse...It is not easy for journalists to take on the masters of the financial universe, especially when the market is going up and everyone is happy...PBS's David Brancaccio says that "we journalists have had a long history with accepting what the smart people hand down to us, especially on complicated stuff. . . . When I would cover these very issues about problems with regulation, problems with 'is this a disaster waiting to happen?' people would say: 'Well, young man, you don't have an MBA like I do. Trust us. We went to business school.' "
...
[J]ournalists are reluctant to target those who are guzzling the punch: the overstretched folks who bought houses they couldn't afford and second homes they wanted to flip, all based on the presumption of endlessly rising prices.