They were hoping for a speed bump but hit the brick wall they knew was there.
Just damn. Starting back in 1998 with the technology bubble we saw a lot of BS reporting by analysts who were working for companies with investment banking operations. Say nice things about a company to support the IPO and following stock values. Companies know you can take them public for big windfall and your firm gets the business.
Doesn’t anyone ever learn here?
No, they didn’t create it, but they were major aiders and abettors.
You look at some of the tranches of mnortgage debt these putzes rated and it’s shocking. 98.5% LTV loans on hundreds new subdivisions in Stockton, CA, where previous homes sold for low $200K ramped up to the high $500K range; without the slightest consideration for the lack of wage-generating jobs in those areas; without even minimal consideration for the capitalization of mortgage insurers PMI, ABK, MBI. Just shocking, rating crap like that 20 and 30 basis points below Tsys. Insane. Ahhh, but they needed the next ratings deal, so just like a corrupt appraiser would crank their appraisal to “make the numbers” these guys, on a macro scale, did the same thing for their securitization clients.
Ultimately it’s just another example of a class of folks who will likely pay little or no price on a personal basis, but whose actions have probably badly undermined the integrity of the US financial system for a decade, and whose shoddy results will grind the US into a long and drawn out recession and credit crunch.
Where are the perp walks for these greedsters, for AIG, Lehman, for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? For ACORN?
Tyco, Enron and others swindled tens of millions of dollars from shareholders while the poster boys for corporate greed, Kenneth Lay and Dennis Kozlowski, and their minions, were made to execute the humiliating "perp walk"----led off to jail.
The mortgage meltdown perpetrated by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac cost taxpayers billions. Why isn't Bush demanding Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines---- who pocketed over $90 million in perks, bonuses and pensions----be hauled off to jail?
Why isn't Raines, ACORN, as well as all the government officials who forced the banks to make these bad loans, doing the perp walk?
I don’t think it took a great intellect to see the melt down coming. Just look back at the ads on radio and TV...”no job, not SSA #, no credit, no problem we can get you that home loan.” The home loan industry was turned into a joke on the US taxpayer.
You didn’t have to be a Credit Analyst to see it coming! It was only a matter of time!
Well, look at the bright side...At least lots of people from all over the place will end up in homes, big or small, that they couldn’t otherwise afford to inhabit. The taxpayer subsidized anti-foreclosure programs coming down the pike will certainly please San Francisco Nan, Bawrney Fwanks, B. Hussein Obama etc...Quite a housing program- affordable or otherwise.../sarc