Rubin: 'We all bear responsibility'

No Doubt that there's plenty of blame to go around.

But the Sole reason the collapse happened was the Gov't forcing, And/Or, allowing no money down loans and loans of 125% of the value of the home.

If the home sale market value dropped 20%, banks would have still had 100% of equity in the paper they held.

But with a 125% loan, if market value lost 20%, banks lost 45% of equity, which is what triggered All the failures.

Since if everybody screwed up the same, but if there was 100% equity in the paper, none of the financial derivatives would have failed, none of the mortgage insurance companies would have failed, and non of the credit default swaps would caused devastation.

And what does our gov't do now to prevent such a thing from happening again? Still forces mortgages in redline districts and makes loans with as little as 2% down (or even less). Insanity.

Most uninformed people blame BUSH....however, Chriss Dodd and Barney Frank were heading up the Finance Committee and were warned of the impending collapse.....but, refused to do anything about it.? I believe they understood Bush would be blamed and that would put the Republicans in a poor light with the public....which, of course, would give the Democratic Party agenda a big boost.

Now we have to live the damage caused by the votes of the uninformed.

?

“I’m not so sure about that,” Rubin responded. “I did worry about excesses,” he said, “but what I didn’t see and virtually nobody saw was that it wasn’t just excesses but that there were so many other factors.”

If Rubin is telling the truth, and that is a big if, then he should have suffered financial losses that set him back decades, just like the rest of America did. I would bet my last dollar that he shifted his assets into safe investments like treasury notes and other instruments to protect his wealth. He and the rest of his bankster buddies could prove how UNAWARE of what was coming simply by sharing his financial statements a year before and shortly after the crash of 08. The market crash of 2000 found him comfortably in cash instruments that protected his wealth. You can bet 2008 was no different.

So the financial genius had no management responsibility and had no idea what risks Citi was taking, but somehow managed to suck up over $100 million in compensation. Congress should tax his "unearned income" at 100%.

When they drag Barney Frank and Chris Dodd before the court of the people I wish to be there.

They above all others bear the price Americans are now paying.

Barney Frank's track record as The House Financial Services Chairman said for years that a collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would pose zero risk to taxpayers.

There are currently some $1.7 trillion in municipal bonds held by the public, and Barney thinks we can insure them at "zero cost.

Mr. Buffet compares it to insuring against natural disasters, where many loss-free years can be more than wiped out by one devastating experience.

Barney Frank led the wailing of those pushing banks and other institutions to give mortgages and loans to people who could not afford them or who probably would not pay them back even if they could.

Mr. Frank also fought tooth and nail against any and all efforts to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the other government lending institutions..

Americans fell into Barney and Dodd's trap with NO MONEY DOWN.

Barney and Dodd started it, kept it going and now want to cover it up with NEW laws when they didn't "oversee" their buddies hiding the perfect storm.

Then go back even further to Clinton and Chuckie " baby" Schumer.

The corruption goes with many including

In what may seem like a bad joke, Bill Clinton's criminally indicted, tax evading Housing Secretary has been tapped to investigate a fraud infested community organization with strong ties to Barack Obama.

Henry Cisneros an admitted criminal who pleaded guilty to charges of lying to the FBI to cover payments to a mistress, may seem like a strange choice to weed out wrongdoing on any level yet that is what he has been recruited to do.

The shamed Clinton cabinet member will conduct a probe of the notoriously corrupt Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now......... ACORN, well known for voter fraud, embezzlement and "cooking the books."

Congress tried 11 times to repeal Glass-Steagall.

The twelfth was the charm.

Today Congress voted to update the rules that have governed financial services since the Great Depression and replace them with a system for the 21st century," said then-Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers.

"This historic legislation will better enable American companies to compete in the new economy."

"I welcome this day as a day of success and triumph," said Sen. Christopher Dodd, (D-Conn.).

"The concerns that we will have a meltdown like 1929 are dramatically overblown," said Sen. Bob Kerrey, (D-Neb.).

"If we don't pass this bill, we could find London or Frankfurt or years down the road Shanghai becoming the financial capital of the world," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

"There are many reasons for this bill, but first and foremost is to ensure that U.S. financial firms remain competitive."

It should be noted, additionally, that Dodd and Schumer were able to hammer out, as part of the legislation, the Community Reinvestment Act, which required banks to extend lines of credit to predominantly minority areas..

The biggest winner from Obama’s proposal will not be Wall Street.

Any talk of increasing government control of the financial services sector is a job killer, and will drive investment overseas.

It will be far less regulated markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong that will gain from an exodus of US.

But, But, But, But....... we still don't see that greed-is-not-good!!!!! This materialistic society had a moral breakdown - starting at the top. Isn't the American Dream still to get rich gambling in that Big Casino in the Sky??? But the "work ethic" has always been a joke. You work and the manipulators get rich. (Don't bother me with the rare exceptions). // Jean Clelland-Morin

Pope Benedict the 16.5?

Seriously, the accountants did not do their job for at least 30 years. This fact is repeatedly ignored.

If loan assets were properly valued, many problems could been avoided.

Then of course, you have the financial snake oil salesmen with their magic derivatives.

Gmethod14: Apr. 8, 2010 - 1:20 PM EST

Sorry Tom but that's not the reason at all and if you believe subprime loans were the entire reason the financial system neared collapse then you simply don't understand the issue. The risk the banks took was not just the subprime loans but the outlandish leverage they used and the CDO's and other instruments.

Your statement proves you're missing the point.

Whether I leverage at 1:1, 10:1, or 100:1, being overleveraged is never a problem if All of your paper has 100%, or more, in equity. If 50% of all mortgages defaulted, but there was 100% or more in equity, there is no financial loss. Headaches, yes, cash flow difficulty, yes, but asset poor? Absolutely not.

Gmethod14: Apr. 8, 2010 - 1:20 PM EST

The question then becomes how do we control or regulate this activity to prevent future crises

The answer is simple. Banks should only be allowed to loan up to 80% of value. That way, if there is a 20% drop in housing value, the banks could have a 100% default rate, and still break even. If you can't see that the whole problem was caused by upside down equity, you really don't get it at all.

The no money or little money down buyers, weren't just poor homeowners, it was investors. With skin in the game, they're not going to bail on the mortgage as quickly, which exacerbated the drop.

And no matter who you blame for what, if the mortgages still had 100% equity in them, there could be no collapse. No matter what else happened, who screwed up, who got paid too much, who was greedy, or who created what derivative, if the asset is worth as much, or more than was loaned, there's no collapse. Get it?

Silly Rubin, it's all Bush and Cheneys fault