There are a lot of pieces to my story, a lot of things that bring me here and make me want to laugh and cry—and fight—with all of you. But I want to spend a moment talking about the mortgage crisis from the perspective of someone who was in the business at the time.
I worked in retail banking for nearly eight years, from 1997 to 2004. I did just about everything you can do in a client-contact retail banking environment. I originated mortgage loans. I originated, processed, approved and closed consumer loans from home equities to boats and everything in between. I handled deposits and sold annuities. I dealt with bonds and audit issues and participated on committees that advised different banking issues from a retail perspective. I am not an economist, and I put paid to the business sector four years ago and will never return. But anyone with two brain cells to rub together and create a spark should have known that no good could come of the "irrational exuberance" in real estate lending.
I'm not going to explain mortgage-backed securities or the function of the Fed or theorize about the behavior of the market.
I'm just going to tell you what I saw, and what I did.
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