On Jul 25, 2012, at 5:53 PM, Francis Drouillard wrote: > But there are other factors, and they continue to this day: evil or careless > politicians and regulators that get in bed with the leaders of industry they > regulate
What regulators? The Financial industry was "self-regulating", and the 'bad federal policies' on mortgage lending had diddly squat to do with it. Nearly all of the bad loans that were made were not subject to the CRA. The primary causes of the financial collapse were: 1) the disconnect between mortgage origination and servicing and lending risk..mortgage companies had zero downside to making bad loans. 2) the Fed keeping rates artificaially low, due to Alan Greenspan's paranoia about inflation 3) the deregulation of the financial industry (the primary cause of Lehman's collapse and the near collapse of AIG were directly related to the expemption of credit default swaps from regulation, inserted into the omnibus budget bill at the last minute by Phil Gramm...who went on to UBS, very conveniently) 4) the opacity of the myriad and ever more complex derivative securities sold by the now-deregulated banks mixing speculation with customer deposits 5) and the delusional attitude of very nearly everyone that the real estate bubble was not a bubble. This happened after 30 years of cheap credit masking the continued economic degradation of the 99%..the Walton family alone possesses more wealth than the lower 80% of the American population COMBINED. How did they get there? Cheaper and cheaper goods derived primarily from their suppliers outsourcing formerly American-based production to low-wage countries, and decimating the American manufacturing sector. Now everyone needed Walmarts low prices because they'd gotten laid off when the factory closed. Great for the Walton family, not so great for everyone else. -- Bruce Johnson University of Arizona College of Pharmacy Information Technology Group Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "StrataList-OT" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/stratalist-ot?hl=en.
