700 Billion Dollars, Part 2
Jim Wright of Stone Kettle Station has a fantastic post about the bail out, and the hows and whys of the Wall Street Meltdown here. It’s well worth the time to read, and it’s nice to know that in my fumbling attempts at explanation to folks yesterday, I was getting it mostly right. Go, me.
- Those who failed to read the fine print on those interest only mortgages or utterly failed to see the implication of the conditions of the loan - or did, but thought, somehow, some way, that they would be able to refinance before the first balloon payment came due . . .
- Those greedy, dishonest bastards in the S&L business, who not satisfied with the pile of dough they were already sitting on, found a way to turn worthless loans into the largest bait and switch scam in history.
- Those in the rating agencies, who gave those worthless bonds AAA ratings, who allowed themselves to be deceived, who bowed to pressure from the S&L’s and from Wall Street Investment firms instead of actually doing their jobs.
