[driftdiver]

“Any bailout money has been repaid a large profit to the govt.”

And yet small business owners cannot get a loan. But banks will give loans to companies in foreign countries.

“Banks did not put this nation into a recession”

What the banks did led to the recession. People want to blame the govt, but the govt was only doing what the banks paid them to do.

Nobody complained when prices were going except people who were trying to buy with real numbers in mind. The banks pushed the numbers up because of the obscene profits they were making.

[Mr. K]

You got it 100% backwards

The banks were FORCED to make these bad loans.

Barney Frank and Chris Dodd made the rules that said that banks had to make loans to lower income people. But the banks were not doing it- they refused.

Then Andrew Cuomo came along and sued one of them for ‘discrimination’, and won what was the single biggest judgement in history (at the time) $$Billions.

Then the banks saw the light- They either made the loans and lose some money, or get sued and lose billions. And the government was going to guarantee those loans anyway, so.... the made them.

.
.
.
This is also why the banks got bailed out. They would have spilled their guts about this otherwise.

[PENANCE]

People want to blame the govt, but the govt was only doing what the banks paid them to do. Even if this were true -- and it isn't -- you'd be saying that banks bribed government officials to be allowed to make loans that they knew could not be repaid. Why would a bank do this? Pay money to the government so that they could LOSE money on bad loans? Really? And even IF what you say were true, the more unethical behavior would be the behavior of the politician TAKING the bribe more than the bank making it. I'm sorry you feel you were screwed by some bank or another. I surely can't say that that doesn't happen, either through incompetence, stupidity, or greedy design. But that doesn't make true what you say about the reasons for the housing collapse, financial crisis, or recession.

[HereInTheHeartland]

Take a look at this story and tell me who was responsible here:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011103230346