Stupid people vs. Wall St.; Dylan Ratigan explains it to Joe Scab.

[Atman]

He is handing Joe Scab a big plate of whoop-ass this morning, as Joe defends the robber barons vs. the "stupid people" who allowed themselves to be taken advantage of by the robber barons. It's amazing...Joe can't do anything but change the subject, or go to Willie or Mike for their insipid non sequiturs. I think the segment is over by now, but it was refreshing to hear at least ONE person who understands how "the system" (the Wall Street one) fucked over the country.

Paraphrasing: "The difference is, they encouraged people to buy homes and cars they couldn't afford, which, when the bottom inevitably fell out, could be repossessed and resold. Meanwhile, THEY sold nothing. They sold paper, air. And when it all collapsed, THEY got to keep all the money they made. There was nothing to repossess. So the robber barons made billions and kept their billions after the collapse...they took a hit on paper, but they still made millions/billions. The people they sold this bill of goods to lost everything, including their jobs."

Joe, of course, had to change the subject. Can't upset the insurance industry or Wall Street...GE (NBC parent company) is a HUGE player in the insurance industry.

Dylan is apparently the company's current token populist.

(BTW, I don't think either of them ever said "stupid people." At least, not overtly. But it's clearly what they were saying.)

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[Richardo]

1. Rec for the use of 'insipid'

:thumbsup:

We don't see that word enough these days. :patriot:

[CTyankee]

2. Damn, I overslept so I missed this one.

Aaargh. I love it when somebody goes after Joe and his candy ass defense of Wall St.

[AmandaRuth]

3. There will always be people who want loans

they can;t afford. I, myself, applied for a new car loan back in 1977, which I clearly couldn't afford at that time. I was rightly turned down. It should be up to the banks to weed these people out. It used to be called fiduciary responsibility, and the practice of showing fiduciary responsibility was called underwriting.

[TxRider]

4. And all under the watchful eyes of our government

Even aided and abetted by our government.

I bought my home 3 yrs ago, at the peak of the bubble, they tried to push interest only, ARM, etc. on me but I just laughed at them, literally. It's a shame so many didn't understand what they were getting into.

20% down, fixed 30yrs for me.

Fortunately home prices here haven't dropped, and have actually risen slightly in 3 yrs.

I can't imagine what some people in other areas are going through now.

I hope Obama pushes through some serious regulation on lending and mortgage backed securities.