[Synchro909]

What makes those mortgage derivatives more disasterous over there than here is that a mortgage holder over there can just send the keys to the bank and walk away. Here, if they can't make their payments, the house in repossessed and sold. If that doesn't cover the mortgage, the balance still owed by the customer and the banks close in on your other assests. That's a big part of the reason why we had no bank failures during the GFC and our biggest 4 banks were 4 out of about 7 banks world wide to hold their AAA+ rating.
Never the less, it was a nasty time. I was in Canada and the US when all that started and couldn't do anything about my investments till I got home. All I could do was watch - and cry!