Andylusion
Platinum Member
The Meltdown was far less about government than it was about Wall Street's Wild West show, starring the banks, insane unregulated leverage, the mortgage companies, insurance companies, CDO's, CMO's, swaps, synthentics and corruption at the ratings services. Even Alan "the markets will self correct" Greenspan admitted that. And the Fed had to save our ass. AND, he ignored the CLTC's Brooksley Borns when she PUBLICLY BEGGED him for regulation.This is Capitalism 2.0 now: The Federal Reserve as a primary component of the economy, there to save our ass when capitalism fails.And losing $2.4T of said retirement investments when BushCo crashed the economy.The left bitch and complain about corporations...while investing trillions of their own pension money in the same corporations.
First, Bush didn't crash the economy. The origins of the sub-prime housing boom started in 1997. Housing prices started rising to bubble levels in 1997, just like sub-prime mortgages started in 1997.
So unless you think Bush passed a policy that warped back into time to 1997, Bush cannot be blamed for the sub-prime crash.
Second, people did not lose $2.4 Trillion in retirement, unless you were stupid enough to sell when the price was low. I started buying stocks in 2008, specifically because prices were low. I didn't lose even a penny, because I simply didn't sell the stock. The market recovered, and I earned money, I did not lose it.
The markets never actually "recovered". They reinflated with massive socialist infusions by the Fed.
Capitalism!!
I think all of you are greatly over estimating what effect the Federal Reserve has on anything.
Capitalism never failed either. A bank failing, is not Capitalism failing. Besides that, it was government involvement that caused those failures to begin with.
Under capitalism, where socialists don't dictate what loans banks have to make, no sub-prime loans would ever have been made, and thus no economic crash would have ever happened.
Then in 2019, short term credit markets froze again, and the NY Fed had to save our ass again. $1.5T.
Now in 2020, the Fed is saving our ass yet again by buying TRILLIONS in corporate bonds, junk bonds and even EQUITIES.
No, the Fed is all in now. It's our shiny new toy that we'll almost certainly over-use. Capitalism 2.0.
No, that's not true. Facts over opinion. Sub-prime loans have existed for decades. Yet the sub-prime mortgage market was a niche market until 1997, when it dramatically changed into a large portion of loans.
Why did it remain a tiny niche market for decades on decades? Because they were risky. And risky loans lose money.
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So what happened in 1997 to 1998 that dramatically changed the entire market? Two things. First, government sued banks to force them to make sub-prime loans.
This is well documented. Cuomo proudly sued banks to make them make bad loans, that he himself in the video openly admits, yeah they didn't qualify for loans, and the default rate will be higher on these loans. That part for certain was true.
The second things government did, was guarantee sub-prime loans. Again well documented that in 1997 Freddie Mac, signed a contract with First Union, which later became Wachovia, and Bear Stearns, both of which were huge failures during the crash.
Press release from First Union in 1997.![]()
Bear Stearns, the CRA, and Freddie Mac - Cafe Hayek
I keep hearing that the subprime crisis was caused by people willing to buy stuff they couldn't evaluate. Why would smart people do that? One answer is that they were stupid. In an era of rising home prices, it's hard...cafehayek.com
Capital Markets Corp. and Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. have priced a$384.6 million offering of securities backed by Community ReinvestmentAct (CRA) loans – marking the industry’s first public securitization ofCRA loans.The affordable mortgages were originated or acquired by First UnionCorporation and subsidiaries. Customers will experience no impact –they will continue to make payments to and be serviced by First UnionMortgage Corp. CRA loans are loans targeted to low and moderate incomeborrowers and neighborhoods under the Community Reinvestment Act of1977."The securitization of these affordable mortgages allows us to redeploycapital back into our communities and to expand our ability to providecredit to low and moderate income individuals," said Jane Henderson,managing director of First Union’s Community Reinvestment and FairLending Programs. "First Union is committed to promoting home ownershipin traditionally underserved markets through a comprehensive line ofcompetitive and flexible affordable mortgage products. This transactionenables us to continue to aggressively serve those markets."The $384.6 million in senior certificates are guaranteed by Freddie Mac andhave an implied "AAA" rating. First Union Capital Markets Corp. is theinvestment banking subsidiary of First Union Corporation.
So when you consider that government gave bad loans a AAA rating, guaranteed the loans through Bear Stearns and First Union, and when you consider the government was suing banks to make these loans....
this is what caused the dramatic increase in sub-prime loans, and that caused the increase in housing prices which started in 1997, and eventually led to the crash in 2008.
It was government, from start to finish. Without government, banks would not have given loans to people who did not qualify for loans. Without government, Freddie Mac would not have guaranteed those loans. Without government those mortgage backed securities would never have been given a "AAA" rating.
Without government none of any of this would have happened.
As an impetus, fine. And Clinton opened the floodgates when he let Rubin and Summers talk him into getting rid of Glass Steagall.
But all the crap that happened afterwards - the derivatives, the AAA ratings, the leverage, the CDSs with zero reserve requirements, the banks shorting the very shit they were selling, on and on and on -- that was the free market run amok. Those were the elements of the meltdown, and government had nothing to do with them.
Nothing about Glass Steagall had anything at all to do with the sub-prime crash.
The repeal that you are talking about, happened in 1999. The sub-prime and housing price bubble started in 1997. The two things are not connected.
Additionally, most of the rest of the world, never had the Glass Steagall regulations. Lending requirements are lower in Canada, than in the US. And most of your Europe for that matter.
Moreover, if that 1999 repeal had never happened.... almost none of the banks that failed would have been under that regulation. Countrywide, nope. Indymac, nope. Bear Stearns, nope. Wachovia, nope. Only a very tiny few banks would have been impacted, like CitiGroup.
Even then, while the Glass Steagall regulations may have prevented the merger of Travelers Group, and CitiCorp, the fact is Travelers Group was spun off in 2002, years before the crash, and thus even then, would have had no impact whatsoever on the sub-prime crash in 2008.
So, no... Regulations, or deregulation, had nothing NOTHING to do with the sub-prime crash. Glass Steagall would not have prevented the crash. Deregulation did not cause the crash. And no amount regulations would have stopped the crash.
The crash was caused by government pushing sub-prime loans, and suing banks to make sub-prime loans. Government involvement in the housing market cashed the economy.