seriously, I mean, for example, what are securitized mortgages? how does your
mortgage get bundled and sold and traded en masse with others? For years we
heard about "derivatives" without ever hearing-as with "hedge funds" any
explanation of what they exactly were-aside from glib comments of business
reporters, to say nothing of the pitchman ravings of Kramer-until finally a few
months ago these began to be explained as "side bets" on bonds where people
with no insurable interest in the bond would buy insurance covering the face
amount of the bond against default; a situation where they have a heavy
material interest-the only material interest, actually, in default resulting in
payout. worthy of a casino, particularly where the amount of insurance
coverage sold could exceed the value of the insured object exponentially when
sold like the Brooklyn Bridge to numerous buyers. If not as "Marxists" then as
political people we should talk about stuff like this, why it's criminal and
should be outlawed and put forth some kind of "program" around it.
More importantly are the circumstances of home lending. This foreclosure
crisis is supposed to deepen in the next year as a whole class of loans, not as
bad as "sub-prime", but ones with variable interest are set to kick in to
higher usorious rates. Estimated that tens of millions of new foreclosures
will result causing downward mobility for many more formerly "middle class"
people.
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