New York state prosecutors have sent subpoenas to several Wall Street firms seeking information related to the packaging and selling of debt tied to high-risk mortgages, people familiar with the matter say, the latest legal woe to hit the stressed industry. The subpoenas, sent by the office of New York state's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, are broadly written and request information from firms including Merrill Lynch & Co., Bear Stearns Cos. and Deutsche Bank AG, people familiar with the matter say. The review, part of a broader investigation into the mortgage industry, is examining how adequately the investment banks reviewed the quality of mortgages before packaging them into products that were then sold to investors. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119682171933713971.html
This whole mess is BULL#%$ As long as everyone MAKES money, no one gives a rats azz as to HOW its made, legal, illegal, doesn't matter, just "show me the monaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy" But the SECOND the house of cards falls, EVERYone is screaming lawsuit, investigation, inquiries....INSTEAD of looking at the rubble to say "gee, I guess we should have built a foundation, and used real building materials....instead of using a million decks of playing cards". The fact of the matter is, the popping of ANY bubble must be allowed to occur, to let the MARKET go where it MUST go, and not interfere with the process. The real estate market and the financial markets NEED the cleansing that should be allowed to occur naturally.....and that means LOSSES MUST BE BOOKED AND TAKEN, PERIOD. Whatever happened to taking responsibility for your actions!?!?!?! Wouldn't it be nice, if......every trade you made was guaranteed not to lose......that as long as you were showing a profit, the trade was officially booked.....but the second it became a losing trade, it automatically was erased from the system? Hmmmmmm, where have I heard of that before........that's right, its the rules for how to pop a real estate bubble......reward all the greedy bastards from the very bottom to the very top in the the real estate market for anyone who was involved in the spider web, from: 1) the Fed driving interest rates ridiculously low, fueling cheap money bubbles in every market 2) to the individual real estate speculator, investor, flipper, living beyond their means people that bought the properties under the greater fool theory that prices only go up, 3) to the mortgage companies that underwrote the loans with a total disregard for underwriting standards and the ability to repay 4) to the investment banks that pooled those loans and sliced and diced the cashflows into fixed income securities and products 5) to the rating agencies that assigned them investment grade ratings 6) to the insurance wrapper companies that made the high ratings possible 7) to the hedge funds, money managers, mutual funds, banks, credit unions, insurance companies, pension funds etc that purchased the products created by the Street And now they are ALL crying fowl, demanding restitution.....but all was fine as long as they were MAKING money. The game IS rigged.....because the government refuses to let the markets go where they MUST go. Ok, that's my rant for the day
astonishing really, that the punishment goes to those who didn't overextend themselves speculation is mandatory