The answer is old and nasty
The correct answer is supernatural activities, mostly demons and witches. People who were insane or had various forms of madness were considered to be working with demons or practicing witchcraft so they were often imprisoned or punished or priests would try to exorcise the demons out of them.
<span />
"Companies were guilty of unwise lending practices" and "<span>The Federal government was guilty of poor policies" are both correct since there was lots of "loose lending" that allowed people who weren't prepared to purchase homes.</span>
I'm pretty sure it's the national road
