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  • huskerbob: 
  • Comments (180)
  Yes, many people played the same game. Borrow and spend, leverage yourself to the hilt. But the hoi polloi did not come up with this idea on their own. Did you notice any articles telling the unwashed masses that their homes would always go up in value? Did Greenspan and Bernanke ever write about the need to punish savers to maintain the rate of inflation? Ever see any media anywhere which encouraged unsophisticated consumers to buy now, pay later, spend their equity, easy credit? Of course you did.
  Everyone was involved, but I would hope that those who make it their vocation to manage money (bankers, central bankers, etc.) bear a greater share of the responsibility. And to the public, they look like the only ones who made out. Of course people are angry about banksters who grab tax dollars with one hand while the other is wrapped about the stem of their Baccarat crystal glass!
  The greatest share of the blame goes to the Fed, which was the architect of this loose money policy in the first place.
  
  

  Feb 07 02:34 AM | Link | Reply
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  • morph366: 
  • Comments (673)
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  • MORPH366
  I would take a slightly different view on the reason why the quants on the payrolls of the big banks were allowed to get away with it.
  
  Why did we allow the financial engineering community to mislead us and screw up as spectacularly as they did? Because in a way we wanted them to.
  
  There was a massive act of self deception amongst all sections of the economy - we all knew that the world of investment and finance is high risk but we wanted to believe, even if it required a collective act of ignorance (i.e. ignoring) that certain very clever high priests or financial wizards had come up with a way of making the world immune to financial cataclysms. We sold this notion to ourselves as if it was like a great medical breakthrough a little like purging the world of smallpox through inoculations or relieving pain through anaesthesia.
  
  Alas, we now know that such an analogy broke down utterly and when historians look back on the recent era of financial policy making and the technology of finance it will look more like the bloodletting of the medieval medical profession.
  
  

  Feb 07 03:19 AM | Link | Reply
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  • Honest Corr...: 
  • Comments (7)

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  • theblackship.com/new...
  Scattered Trust of Highly Motivated Employee
  
  It is known there are many hidden obstacles on the way to success in business. One chooses to overcome them legally going through thick and thin, others prefer to speculate upon a fraud scheme to tear out some money. For instance, the Russian Federation allows the latter to prosper and not to be accused of their heinous deeds since the Russian legislation is used selectively and corruption has become a norm of life.
  
  Mitsubishi Corporation LT, Inc. [MCLogi Singapore] & Toshiba Group Companies official representatives in Russian Federation are having great financial, customs and taxes problems caused by the cases of money laundering schemes and frauds affairs with broken units (already covered by insurance companies) supply from Finland Kouvola warehouse to retail chains MediaMarkt and Auchan in Russia
  

  Feb 07 06:12 AM | Link | Reply
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  • Niner: 
  • Comments (669)
  
  At-a-boy, Huskerbob.
  
  
  On Feb 07 02:34 AM huskerbob wrote:
  
  > Yes, many people played the same game. Borrow and spend, leverage
  > yourself to the hilt. But the hoi polloi did not come up with this
  > idea on their own. Did you notice any articles telling the unwashed
  > masses that their homes would always go up in value? Did Greenspan
  > and Bernanke ever write about the need to punish savers to maintain
  > the rate of inflation? Ever see any media anywhere which encouraged
  > unsophisticated consumers to buy now, pay later, spend their equity,
  > easy credit? Of course you did.
  > Everyone was involved, but I would hope that those who make it their
  > vocation to manage money (bankers, central bankers, etc.) bear a
  > greater share of the responsibility. And to the public, they look
  > like the only ones who made out. Of course people are angry about
  > banksters who grab tax dollars with one hand while the other is wrapped
  > about the stem of their Baccarat crystal glass!
  > The greatest share of the blame goes to the Fed, which was the architect
  > of this loose money policy in the first place.
  >

  Feb 07 07:34 AM | Link | Reply
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  • Vanderpool: 
  • Comments (13)
  HuskerBob is right. He is right that we all knew something about what was going on and he is right that the blame ultimately does lie with the Bankers and authorities charged with the priviledge of overseeing how we utilize our credit in this country.
  We all suspected something was askew when our neighbors bragged about buying second and third houses by maxing their mortgages, equity lines and credit cards. When Plumbers advised their customers to "invest" in million dollar condos like themsleves... (These are my experiences). Yes "We" all knew something was wrong... but that certainly doesn't mean "We" knew how to correct it or why it was happening... BUT the bankers knew and the Fed knew and the mortgage brokers knew. These were the people charged to be alert to abuse of the system and whose responsibility it was to stop abuse... not PROMOTE it.
  Like a Canary in a coal mine, these people should have been doing their professional "darndest" to stop the rampant abuse of credit but they failed and many people will suffer.
  I did not participate, I did not support the "Deregulate everything" blather. I could not support the political winners of the last 8 years but I have lost out just the same... And I have minimal debt.
  The only thing sensible people like myself could have done is instead of voting once, in an election, would have been to vote 3 or 4 times to counter balance the wave of suspended disbelief the nation operated under the last several years.
  
  
  

  Feb 07 09:08 AM | Link | Reply
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  • tjohn1: 
  • Comments (12)
  I read that banking originated in Florence, Italy. Banking is undoubtedly behind the development of our civilization. They are the ones who developed credit cards and mortgages including the no down payment, floating rate and so on. They are the ones who created the asset backed securities. The bankers gained as the credit phenomenon exploded. They became careless. They relaxed standards so much that any body whether he has ability to repay or not got the credit. Central bankers colluded with commercial bankers in taking the credit expansion to a higher level. That is how we have this mess. The question now is: Should the government add fuel to fire by resurrecting the credit spiral again. I understand Americans are changing their spending habits. They are saving more and spending less. The nation is returning to the thrifty ways of their forefathers. Should we kill this thrift movement to save the economy? For one thing I am retired and I don't need a job.

  Feb 07 09:33 AM | Link | Reply
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  • css1971: 
  • Comments (94)

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  • css1971.wikispaces.com/
  99% of the population don't realise that taking out a loan creates new money. They have no clue that credit based spending creates monetary inflation which causes a following deflation.
  
  They really do think they are being loaned someone else's money.
  
  The bankers on the other hand (should) know exactly what they're doing.
  

  Feb 07 12:52 PM | Link | Reply
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  • Broken: 
  • Comments (28)
  Yep, consumers FORCED bankers to lend the money.

  Feb 07 04:31 PM | Link | Reply
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  • FL Resident: 
  • Comments (2)
  Everyone... Please read the prospect(us)(i?) written for these Mortgage-Backed Trusts. Only an idiot would have bought these certificates. The way these trusts were set up... the only people that were ever going to make money were the bankers. Investors aren't even entitled to the massive pre-payment penalities. Those goes straight to the bank. And NOBODY ever intended to hold these crap loans for more than a few years before refinancing/selling. The fact that these things were actually cleared for pension funds and the like (ERISA)... is simply criminal. Obviously the ERISA folks didn't read the prospectus either. Send these "Banksters" to JAIL NOW!!!

  Feb 07 09:54 PM | Link | Reply