----- Original Message ----- From: "B." <docile_body at yahoo.com>
One joke likened the crisis in subprime assets - responsible for triggering the implosion of some hedge funds as they totted up billions of dollars in losses - to the Titanic disaster: as with the Titanic, the downside was not immediately apparent and only a few wealthy people got out in time.
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------------------------------------- [So the wealthy are kind of screwing each other and yet another disposition of trickle-down econ. policy does the rest.........]
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/18/business/18fed.html Fed policy makers and Treasury officials said that in cutting the discount rate, the Fed's principal goal was to shore up the market for creditworthy mortgages, including those for more expensive homes.
While that market is primarily for more affluent borrowers, Fed officials said they were worried that average Americans would suffer, too, if the troubles in the so-called jumbo mortgage market infected the rest of the economy. The collapse of so many subprime mortgage securities had spread to the larger market, and lenders of high-quality mortgages were having trouble selling the loans they made.