Thanks. I'm still waiting though.
Thanks but that article is dated 2009.
I watched a piece of the documentary Generation Zero the other day and realized why these guys were able to take risks like never before. The wall street firms, for the first time, became publicly traded instead of partner-based. Before, if you screwed up, you and your partners lost their houses. That really made people conservative, because your buddy is going to be pretty mad if you lose his life-savings. But with publicly traded companies, all you lose are some investments from random people that these bankers will never meet. They were playing with free money...but investors have to realize this when they choose to put money into a company. Technically, these guys didn't do anything illegal. It was unscrupulous, but the tenets of capitalism say make as much money as possible without breaking any rules. So now either the rules have to be changed or people need to stop giving them the opportunity to make a lot of money at their expense.
And yet, massive fraud and risk on a scale never seen before if being perpetuated on the American taxpayers by the Obama administration and the Democratic controlled Congress. Sadly if those crook ever get prosecuted it will be too late, because there will be no bailouts available for the US Treasury.
Notice how that article talks about alledged crimes by mortgage brokers, and conveniently omits any wrong-doing by Fannie and Freddie (both close to Obama and the Democrats)?
-There, fixed it.
And yet, massive fraud and risk on a scale never seen before was perpetrated on the American taxpayers by the second Bush administration and the Republican controlled Congress. Sadly if those crooks ever get prosecuted it will be too late, because there will already be tens of thousands of dead foreign civilians and young American service members, an empty US Treasury, and still no domestic energy or security policies.
Notice how that article talks about the crimes of mortgage brokers, and conveniently omits any wrong-doing by ratings companies, SEC regulators, or the war profiteers and cheerleaders who emptied the Treasury while cutting taxes to the wealthiest 5% of Americans?
I still can't figure out why people are foolish enough to give their money to complete strangers just because they promise to give them more money back in the future.
Wall St didn't act alone. The regulatory structure facilitated the risk and meltdown. The Fed's easy money policy facilitated the lax underwriting. Taking a look at the financial industry right now - Banks are borrowing at near 0% and the regulatory structure, and ability to rely on trading desks as profit centers is unchanged from two years ago. Why should anyone expect different results. It's madness.