[rbinv]

Who exactly lost their home while paying their mortgage on time?

I'm not saying that the GFC wasn't massive (it was) or that people didn't lose their jobs and homes (many did), but MBS were not at fault. Subprime lending was, among other factors.

[ashtonkem]

MBS were the engine that kept a housing mania going. But as you said, they didn’t make people over leverage their own houses.

Arguably the originator banks deserve a lot more blame for that, since they actually were the ones willingly handing out bad loans and/or encouraging bad consumer practices.

[Cthulhu_]

How many people lost their jobs and got into financial problems, is the question you should be asking.

Answer: unemployment went from 4.6 to 10%, and it took eight years to recover: http://infographic.statista.com/normal/chartoftheday_8974_us...