Quote:
Originally Posted by srmom
Yep, the idiots who bought more house than they could afford, the lenders who didn't do due diligence in lending money to people who couldn't pay them back, the brokers who decided to "package" mortgages and sell them as derivatives, AIG for deciding that it would be a brilliant idea to "insure" the derivatives, and the various governments around the world (cuz it's not just us who are in this mess) who turned a blind eye to the irresponsible and barely legal shenanigans that were going on.
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I still put the lion's share of the blame on idiots in South Florida and inland California. After all, CDOs have been around for years, and AIG did fine with insuring them just like they did when most people had prime mortgages.
I think everyone saw this coming; I was receiving letters asking me to mortgage my (non-existent) home and to increase my credit lines when I was an unemployed graduate student. After I started working, I couldn't go to the mailbox without encountering 5-6 credit card offers. I knew full well I couldn't afford any of this stuff without leveraging my future. If I knew, people twice my age who did this had to have been aware. Chalk it up to irresponsible Baby Boomers?
I was cleaning out my desk a few weeks ago, and I found a business card from a college classmate, who was (as a year and a half ago) at Lehman Brothers specializing in CDO Sales. Before that, he was at Bear Stearns. I'd bet he is no longer employed.