[lbo-talk] Sub-prime crisis in Kansas City

Jordan Hayes jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com
Sun Jan 6 10:45:08 PST 2008



> Wouldn't it be highly likely at the time these loans were
> made that many of the poor people would default on their
> loans, and so the vultures would not collect the loans or
> interest?

The vultures I'm talking about were just brokers; they'd sell the loan the next day (no longer my problem) and collect a comission for the sale. They couldn't care less if you default. Likewise even at traditional banks, if you could sell the loan, it's no longer your problem.

It's kind of like musical chairs: when the music stopped, who didn't have a chair? Which gets back to my earlier point, which was that some of this was caused by your garden-variety sales tactics (yes, John, some of it even because of -- *gasp* -- racism), but the complicit Responsible Parties also failed: traditional lending criteria (and fact-checking from contractors: brokers, appraisers, etc.) went out the window in a stunning (and ultimately costly to places like Countrywide, Citibank, and WAMU) reversal of prudence; and who everyone else looks to for guidance -- the ratings folks: Moody's, S&P -- apparently Simply Blew It.

/jordan



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