I am absolutely stunned that in this day and age there are Piggs who are pinning the blame for this entire mess on the fraction of subprime loans generated or held by Fannie, Freddie and the CRA.
It’s ridiculous, considering we all sat here watching every single facet of the finance community creating and pushing exotic loans on anyone who would take them. And pretty much, everyone took them. Why not? We were told that real estate only goes UP! It would all work out in time for the next flip.
We read stories about Countrywide – and how they pushed these loans on buyers because they generated commissions of up to $30k for the broker… (Even when those buyers qualified for traditional loans!) We watched yuppies finance Hummers and vacations with HELOCS and we KNEW it was going to end badly.
The investment community as a whole had a huge appetite for these loans – the greater the risk, the greater potential for a huge payout. They even figured out how to make money from the defaults! If you weren’t in on it from 2002-2006, you weren’t making any money.
I’m just disappointed that a year and a half ago, we were discussing how widespread, rampant and dangerous these finance products were – and how deeply they permeated the entire market…. But now it seems many would like to forget all that because it requires looking in the mirror.
I’m sorry, but unsophisticated poor people did not do this to us. There was a clever, calculating counterparty to each and every one of these transactions.
I’m happy to see that at least one Pigg remembers the Credit Suisse reset chart.. Clearly, it demonstrates that middle and upper end buyers assumed at least half of the risky loans. It’s not close to being over, yet a few people here have already finished their investigation and are holding press conferences. Cute.
