Alright man, so imagine like, you know how sometimes you get really hungry and you just gotta have a massive burrito or something, right? But you don't have enough cash on hand, so you ask your buddy if they can front you a few bucks, and you promise to pay them back later. That's kind of like how the banks were acting during the subprime mortgage crisis.

See, banks were lending out money to people who couldn't really afford to buy a house, just like your buddy lent you money for that burrito. But unlike your buddy, who probably trusted that you'd be able to pay them back, the banks didn't really care if the people they were lending to could actually afford to make the payments on their mortgages. They were just like, "Hey man, you want a house? Cool, here's some cash. No worries, we'll figure it out later."

But then, as you might have guessed, a lot of these people ended up defaulting on their mortgages because they couldn't actually afford the payments. And just like how you might have to pay your buddy back if you couldn't come through with the burrito money, the banks had to take a hit on all of these bad loans.

It all came to a head in 2008 when a bunch of these risky mortgages that the banks had given out started to default all at once, and the banks started to lose a ton of money. It was like a huge burrito-induced financial hangover, man. And just like how you might have to call in sick to work after a particularly intense burrito bender, the whole economy kind of went into a recession because of all the financial fallout from the crisis.

But hey, at least we learned a lesson, right? Don't lend money to someone unless you're pretty sure they can pay you back, and maybe think twice before eating that extra-large burrito. It's all about being responsible, man.