Anybody else watching this on C-Span. The Financial Commission?
I just finished watching a segment of the Financial Crisis Commission on C-Span. I watched Michael Mayo of Caylon Securities, simply reveal, operative word simply, what made our economy by way of the banking system collapse. Regulatory oversite was nil.
Incentives were given to many financial workers to perform the duties opposite to what is necessary to foster a healthy economy. They did it for financial gain, and as a job duty directive. Build that bubble, make those securities, and you’ll be handsomely rewarded. The government encouraged mortgage lending and borrowing.
He urged that Sheila Bair, head of the FDIC, be questioned, as to why the banks had not been paying into the FDIC insurance plan since 1996. Since 1996!!!!!!. No one enforced that they did. (We tax payers really picked up the tab). He likened it to having car insurance and not paying the premium until you had a car accident. Life insurance and not paying a premium until you’re dead.
He sorta ends by saying, it is everyone’s fault who played the game. He says it is a collective fault. But I still beg to differ. The government’s duty was to protect us, not feed us to the wolves. If they didn’t align with Wall Street, by stopping the regulatory process, (and getting rich in the meantime) this didn’t ever have to happen. An instrument, a loan, an opportunity to do wrong and be led a stray would not have been available to the citizens of this nation if the Financial business leaders and government did not align to make it come about.