nail in the coffin

Sometimes when I look at everyone involved in the mortgage scam I get a headache. Everyone at almost every stage of the process was trying to rip off the American consumer. We have the mortgage lender who was changing mortgage applications to get Americans who were not qualified for mortgages qualified. First lie. Then we have those same mortgage lenders telling Americans that they have fixed mortgages, when in fact they had highly adjustable interest rate mortgages. Lie #2. These lenders would then sell those mortgages to Wall Street. Wall Street would package the mortgages into securities which were sold to pension funds and other institutions that require AAA graded securities. In order to get garbage labeled as AAA, Wall Street needed a partner in crime. They got Moody’s and other rating agencies to play the game. Lie #3. Finally, and what I think is the nail in the coffin, Wall Street got nervous when everything started heading south. It was clear that many of these AAA grade securities were garbage. If the AAA stuff was vomitous then was the BBB rated stuff? Wall Street started hedging their bets with CDOs. Basically, they were betting against their customers and what they were telling their customers and the American people.

More later and thanks for the heads up (LM)