On Wed, 6 May 2009 09:22:52 -0700 (PDT), Too_Many_Tools
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see:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/06/AR2009050603365.html
"Overall, the financial services sector has spent $3.5 billion
lobbying Congress since 1998, it said. "
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/may2009/db2009056_060012.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_news+%2B+analysis
"A new study argues that the major banks owned or heavily
financed the leading subprime lenders at the peak of the market
By Theo Francis
Data from millions of mortgages show the big financial
institutions at the center of the financial crisis were major
players in the housing-market abuses that precipitated it, a new
report argues.
Mining federal lending data, the May 6 report from the Center for
Public Integrity, a Washington watchdog group, concluded that
nearly all of the top 25 subprime mortgage lenders, responsible
for roughly $1 trillion in high-interest loans from 2005 through
2007, were owned or heavily financed by major Wall Street and
commercial banks.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/gc06/idUKTRE5454J820090506
"The mega-banks that funded the subprime industry were not
victims of an unforeseen financial collapse," said Bill Buzenberg
of the Center for Public Integrity.
"These banks were deliberate enablers that bankrolled the type of
lending that's now threatening the financial system."
Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Bank of America
(BAC.N) all backed New Century Financial Corp. which originated
more than $75 billion in high-cost loans between 2005 and 2007,
according to the non-partisan group. The center says it
specializes in investigative journalism on issues of public
concern.
In all, the Congress has cleared $700 billion in taxpayer money
to help stabilize markets with Goldman and Morgan Stanley
receiving $10 billion each while Bank of America got a $25
billion investment.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-subprime6-2009may06,0,6489207.story
Bailed-out banks enabled subprime lending, study contends
Many getting bailouts fueled the subprime mortgage market
centered in California, the Center for Public Integrity says.
By Tom Hamburger and Ralph Vartabedian
May 6, 2009
Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington -- The major banks now
collecting federal bailout money were not unwitting victims of
the mortgage meltdown but instead were directly linked to the
root cause of the problem: a subprime lending machine
concentrated in Southern California, a new study asserts.
The banks were "enablers that bankrolled the type of lending
threatening the international financial system," according to the
study being released today by the Center for Public Integrity, a
Washington-based watchdog group.
The center collected data on the top two dozen subprime lenders
in an effort to paint a comprehensive picture of how each major
player was linked to the banking system.
"What happened to our largest financial institutions was very
much a self-inflicted wound," said the center's executive
director, Bill Buzenberg. "These banks owned many of the subprime
lenders and financed their lending in order to get bundles of
mortgage-backed securities that they could sell, reaping enormous
profits."
The report noted that investment banks Lehman Bros., Merrill
Lynch, J.P. Morgan and Citigroup "both owned and financed
subprime lenders," and that others, including Goldman Sachs & Co.
and Swiss bank Credit Suisse First Boston, were major financial
backers of subprime lenders.
Chutzpah: One example given of the ultimate of chutzpah is: "A
boy, having just been convicted of murdering his parents, begs
the judge for leniency because he is an orphan."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chutzpah
Unka' George [George McDuffee]
-------------------------------------------
He that will not apply new remedies,
must expect new evils:
for Time is the greatest innovator: and
if Time, of course, alter things to the worse,
and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better,
what shall be the end?
Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher, essayist, statesman.
Essays, "Of Innovations" (1597-1625).