It sickens me that the taxpayer bailed out AIG for its stupidity and much of the debt of the investment banks. And how Moodys and S and P walked away unscathed for grading worthless crap as Triple A.
The book doesn't address is where the hell was the media in all this? The author talks about one of the characters did go to the media and they were not interested in the story. I wonder if that is because they thought encouraging “ownership” was too important of a social goal?
What could motivate a bank to make a loan that they know the borrower can not pay? Banks would become insolvent if they did not discriminate between people that can pay and those that cannot. Only in an environment where a government regulation with government assuming all the risk would a company do this! Government meddling in free markets is at the root of virtually all bubbles