The subprime mortgage crisis that blossomed in 05 & 06 was caused by hedge funds, banks, and insurance companies. Does anyone recall why there was a crisis? Home owners walked away from homes because they could not make the payments, but the kicker was it really did not matter because the owner had no equity in the property. Loan to value ratios were too high. Too much easy money. Then, if you recall, came the bank bailouts, the reasoning being they were "too big to fail"? What a farce. Once again the circumstances for failure are in place, with just slight variations on the same theme.  A crisis will happen again, soon. The good news . . . the fix and flip days will return.