My partner recently told me, "you can't model the costs of a washing machine factory without understanding how washing machines get made. Stop looking at the data from the client and demand a tour of the factory." Sometimes you can't just look at data and concepts; you have to see, touch, and taste the issue to really grasp it.
While abstractions are powerful, sometimes concreteness is the best enabler of building a transcendant vision. This NPR program offers a concrete and fascinating summary of the problems in the US mortgage market. It's worth the time investment.
