Banks have thier own laws and rules, and they don't take prisoners. They certainly don't lose money, they control money.
There are countries where the banks have a much bigger responsability. Example: If more than 33% of the income is necessary to bay back a loan, the bank will have to pay the bill if the loan is blown up. The bank will be guilty, not the person who asked a loan.
I was both short and complaining (posted several times about Dodd trying to bail out his CT Hedge fund cronies from their CDO obligations and selling it as a plan to help the low income subprime homeowner), good to see I was in good company though admittedly we were few and far between
It's bad policy like subprime lending and subsequent bailouts which lead us further down the path of Socialism. Unfortunately, that ultimately ends up with a small privileged class and a very large lower class.
The root of the problem lies in something that was mentioned on this thread. Wall street is always short term goal oriented to be able to get their obcene bonuses and so are the hedge funds who only need 2-3 good years for their owners to become very rich. Such environment encourages high risk taking. If they were to pay out of thier pocket for the losses, this whole mess would not exists. OPM is the holy Grail of trading/investing. When we have a negative day in trading, since it is our $ in stake, we are very risk averse, not to make it worse. Regards, redduke
How were Wall St bonuses this year - given that the subprime scam has finally hit the fan? So if it pays well, and the general public foots the bill, why stop scamming? Next!
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Treasury Department and mortgage industry leaders are putting the final touches on a plan that could save struggling homeowners from foreclosure by freezing interest rates before they reset sharply higher. With more than 2 million subprime borrowers facing higher mortgage costs and the possible loss of their homes if they cannot meet the payments, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is expected to announce details of the plan as soon as Wednesday, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. "We're moving as fast as we can move," Paulson told ABC World News with Charles Gibson on Friday. Mounting mortgage foreclosures have spooked financial markets around the globe in recent months. Many sinking loans had been repackaged as securities and sold to investors, who are scrambling to get a handle on the value of their assets. In his interview Friday, Paulson said the Treasury initiative was aimed at the "middle group" of borrowers who have the financial ability to own a home but could not survive a big interest rate increase. "We're focused on those in the center... that are going to have a problem meeting their payments," he said. Hum...any of the bright guys explaining who the "middle group" and "the center" of subprime is....
Isn't funny how this is always framed in terms of the gov't coming to the rescue of Joe Knucklehead who took the free money he was offered...? No mention of the financial companies who are up to their eyeballs in bad paper after having created/packaged/sold/gorged on it over the last few years.... Nice they are always looking out for the little guy even though he was so evil/stupid/greedy to have taken that loan that nobody bothered to check if he could pay back or not.....
Hm. And your sources are? You are very wrong. Such hedge funds are the minority. I know few poeple who work for hedge funds, and what they told me, confirms what i wrote above.
And by-the-way - American's don't save enough of those devalued dollars - so that's your fault too....