The NY Times reports "In 2003, of all new mortgages, 10.2 percent were interest-only." 10% of Americans "bought" a house where not only does the bank really own it (the case for most of us), but they are doing nothing to buy it away from the bank, just paying the interest on the loan. What's the point? All interest-only mortgages do is enable speculation and waste the money of those too desparate to lose it. Outlawing them would do more good than harm. The article continues "According to Loan Performance, a research firm, 26.7 percent of all loans were interest-only (in 2005) and another 15.3 percent were payment-option adjustable rate mortgages, which allow homeowners to choose how much they paid each month." So the percentage was meaningful in 2003 and has grown since then. What could possibly go wrong?