Which only makes sense, since they are clearly our betters.
What right have the hoi polloi to complain about the scraps they receive? They ought to be damn grateful.
Bankers, brokers and real estate agencies may have been greedy and out of control, but the moral hazard that allowed them to drive the financial system was ultimately created by government and there is simply no getting around that fact.
Let's say you're a banker and you can sell a $750,000 mortgage to a teacher and his wife whose combined income is $85,000/year. [This is an actual case I know of first hand.] You're fully aware that there is no chance in the world that this couple can meet their obligations on this loan. Their best outcome is to get slightly underwater and in a few months come to their senses, and sell the house. At the rate that real estate was appreciating in some markets, it was even possible they'd be able to sell and not actually lose anything.
You don't even care about that, because you know that a secondary mortgage buyer is going to come along and take this note off your hands. Meanwhile, you will make several points off the closing, as will the title company. The appraiser is going to make money. The realtor is getting her 6%. They may even have a lawyer come to the closing. He golfs with you and makes an easy $200-300.
None of the beneficiaries would be getting any of this free money if you were the one being stuck with the loan, because you wouldn't finance this note if it was staying in your bank.
The fact that there was no connection between those selling the money and those who owned it is the reason for the crash, and it is exactly why QE ultimately is going to crash as well; the Fed has a bigger checkbook than Fannie and Freddie, so it's going to take longer.
And it's going to be worse. Much. Much. Worse.
Interesting point that the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street, superficially such opposites, both grow out of the same underlying distrust of and hostility toward the political and financial elites.
That never occurred to me, but once I read it here, it’s obviously true.
Alas!
Rasmussen has re-surfaced...
In the meantime his former polling company has become decidedly more pro-ubama in its polling results.