It may be simplistic, but there are facts behind the viewpoint that the banks are boogeymen. Certainly more than in your response.
I thought Bear and Lehman collapsed because their bonds (many mortgage related) fell in value?
and they got the government to give them a full payout.
The banks did not get a full payout from the Lehman collapse.
The banks were behind the LTCM bailout, which bailed out said banks.
OMG! A private solution. The horror!
“Let’s see now. The Fed is owned by the banks,”
No its not.
“and is primarily responsible for a 98% fall in the value of the dollar over the last 98 years.”
No its not.
“Wall Street (i.e. Goldman Sachs) is was involved in setting up the CDS structure”
Wall Street was one part of a very large CDS market. Its hardly a conspiracy.
“that took down Lehmann and Bear Sterns,”
True. It did take them down.
“and they got the government to give them a full payout.”
Kind of. There were a lot of political interests that were behind it, and Lehmann and Bear Sterns didn’t get a full payout. One was sold in a fire sale and the other ceased to exist. Hardly a windfall.
“The banks were behind the LTCM bailout, which bailed out said banks.”
Super-simplistic view of that transaction. There were a boatload of parties involved. The fact that you attribute it all to banks reveals that you are not super knowledgeable about it.
“It was banks that set up the MERS process and MBS structures, and then cheated like mad”
Super-simplistic view of the entire history of MERS and MBS. There are dozens of parties involved in that history besides banks, and the mortgage industry was not created by banks. If you take these simplistic views of the financial system you become the useful idiot of people who don’t like capitalism in general. So how exactly are you conservative or even pro-American?
“- there’s sworn testimony before Congress that 80% of the loans put into MBS by one company were crap -”
That statement is false in its face, but it supports your simplistic view so I can see how you would believe it.
“and the bankers got the government & Fed to bail them out.”
There were (and are) a lot of parties who would gain if they could bail out and take over banks. Have you thought through why that might be? If you do think it through, you might start to understand how ranting against banks serves certain people that you probably wouldn’t want to hang around. Or you can just stick with the easy answers and continue to spew hatred against bankers. Your choice.
“It may be simplistic,”
It is.
“but there are facts behind the viewpoint that the banks are boogeymen.”
Facts that are incorrect, but if you take the simplistic view that all banks are evil, then they fit perfectly into your world view. Good luck with that world view, you are going to need it.