by Indy » Thu Oct 24, 2013 10:00 am
There's much to this but if you want the elevator version the meltdown happened because quantity usurped quality. You stood to make more money churning out as many mortgages as humanly possible (and packaging them into derivatives) instead of churning out QUALITY loans.
So it didn't matter if the borrowers were crap, if the mortgage was crap, if the derivative was crap--the more you moved, the more you made.
Who cares when it all blew up down the road? You made your money. You're out.
And, as we now know, with no fear of criminal consequences.
Perfect storm.