Greed is Good.
The problem here is that our government and its fake banks (The Fed, Fannie, Freddie) created this mess. When people “flip” houses they buy them, fix them up, and sell them at a higher price. They are providing a great service.
What does the government do? It encourages you to borrow MORE from the banks by letting you write off the interest.
The fake banks provide the credit that the other banks then pass off to the borrowers. All of this stinks not of greed but of unmitigated socialism. McBama want more regulation. But the answer is to go back to the free market and stop “helping” people buy houses.
Watch Wall Street. Great movie...and America is still a malfunctioning corporation in need of restructuring.
Buy Gold.
I think greed is bad. When people are willing to look the other way, when fradulent AAA paper is created, worrying only about their own self interest, and then that money is used to lend to uncredit worthy borrowers, eventually the whole ponzi scheme comes down.
If you mean that hard, honest work to make a profit and get ahead are good, then I’d agree. But I don’t call that greed. That is capitalism. Reasonable regulations on lending standards should have, and could have prevented this real estate ponzi scheme.
Most of the time .... but a lot of crooks are greedy and they flourish in unregulated environments. I wonder how greed worked into the valuation methods - esp. mark-to-model.