[quote name='BillyBob29']I'm not saying we aren't going through some very difficult times but how does a 2-3 year downturn, or even stretching it out and saying 10 years bubbles and busts that have returned us to 97-98 levels = 100 year failed experiment?[/QUOTE]
Because I don't think it's reasonable to call this a part of the normal wax and wane of the market. This was the specific ignoring of risk, huge ridiculous risk, to make a quick profit at the obvious detriment of the capital holders. I'm not saying we won't rise again.
Capitalism at its essence is the management of risk. When you remove risk from the equation and socialize losses, you are a socialist. There are two reasonable conclusions to draw from this exercise:
1. Entities involved cared only for their own short term gain and acted with no fiduciary duty to the capital stakeholders. That is an abject failure of capitalism, and this is on a massive enough scale that we have to reappraise virtually all of capitalism, including limited liability and the act of accounting if we truly want to reform, or:
2. Entities involved priced the risk correctly if they assumed they would be saved by the government. In which case they acted as if we are socialists and are therefore thieves and criminals.
So, was it #1, as seen in exhibit A and B:
"Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories," California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006
"An open market will mean that different institutions will develop different methodologies for achieving this goal," Joseph Polizzotto, counsel to now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers, told U.S. regulators in a March 2006.
Translation: Don't even think we aren't going to make our bonus this year.
Or #2, as seen in now bankrupt exhibit C and D:
"These mortgages have been considered more safe and sound for portfolio lenders than many fixed rate mortgages," David Schneider, home loan president of Washington Mutual
"It is not our role to be the regulator for the third-party lenders," wrote Ruthann Melbourne, chief risk officer of IndyMac Bank.
Right. Only to profit from them, Ms. Melbourne.
Link the story about how bad they f'ed up here
[quote name='DarkSageRK']I don't think you understand economics. Or, more to the point, I don't think you know what the Dow is.[/QUOTE]
Mmmmmmmmmmmmok.