nope, it doesnt bend towards wall street. Big govenement and big business are friends....I have to say that less regulation and government interferance would be nice. Lets get the government out of the way so that when a business goes down, it's all them. no more putting regulations on say mortgages to loan to people who cant pay and then be shocked they dont pay it back.....GEEEEEE
Derivatives in the US were 100 percent deregulated by the CFMA and FSMA. Wall Street (and the City of London, etc.) had a great opportunity to show they could police themselves. Guess what? They failed miserably.
Congress put on big dog and pony shows after the crash to make it look like they were doing something. But you know what? Not one of the big fraudsters went to prison. Want a list?
In fact, one of them was rewarded with an ambassadorship to the Netherlands!
Hired an illegal alien nanny ten years ago? You can't get your nomination confirmed. Robbed people blind and paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines? You don't go to prison. Oh hell no. You get nominated and confirmed to be a US Ambassador.
You can't make this shit up!
This was a team effort. Government and Wall Street working hand in hand.
And this was a global derivatives bubble, not just in the US. Banks failed all over the Western hemisphere, not just here in the US. So to suggest this was related to the CRA, as you seem to imply, is patently ridiculous.
Additionally, these financial products were not constructed solely of home loans. The underlying assets were auto loans, credit card balance, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, and sovereign bonds.
Greece, Italy, Spain, et al? They are exactly the same template used for that subprime loan given to your next door neighbor. The exact same derivatives were built from them.
There are thousands of variations in the financial products world, and they were all put to use to rip the faces off your 401k retirement fund manager, your insurance company, your city treasury, your public employee pension fund, and your local colleges and universities. The money is just FLYING out of your pockets into theirs.
Those foreclosures on your street are but a tiny, tiny fraction of the Big Picture.
These guys now make up 20 percent of our GDP. HUGE growth in the financial sector. And now they are powerful enough to feel untouchable.