Schumer sides with his tribe over his country.

[Shinagami]

They're 2 percent of the population and 20 percent of Congress, and they run most of the banks that wrecked the country, they've gotten us into 2 wars in 10 years and are just itching to get us into a third. No, I don't begrudge them representation but I am going to speak for the other 98% who are tired of America being Israel's bitch. You don't think that's the case? Watch Congress fawning over Netanyahu and then get back to me.

You sure don't have any original ideas. That's exactly the Nazi argument on Germany some 80 years ago. To the letter.

Do I think, the guy's a douche? Yes. Do I think he's been bought by some lobby? Yes. Does it have to do with him being jewish? Possibly. But he's not the only one. There are a lot of good repub christians who gave Netanjahu standing ovations at Congress and they are as opposed to the peace deal as this guy is.

And what about the rest of the jews in Conngress? Do they all hold the same position? Have you checked on their individual records? What's that about 2 wars? Last time I checked neither Bush nor Cheney are jewish.

Yeah, they pretty much do. All the Jews in Congress are Democrats. How many chose to back fellow Democrat Obama and the US over Israel? One. Jerrod Nadler of New York sided with Obama. All the rest sided with Israel. Every last one.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Didn't have much to do with people taking out loans they couldn't afford either, far as I know (though that's a great way to shift the blame and I'm sure that a faction of those involved would very much like for people to believe it to be so).  Say it with me......"exotic financial instruments".

Was it not the case that a rise in the number of foreclosures caused the crash?

Excerpts from the Wikipedia entry:

[...]Increased foreclosure rates in 2006–2007 among U.S. homeowners led to a crisis in August 2008 for the subprime, Alt-A, collateralized debt obligation (CDO), mortgage, credit, hedge fund, and foreign bank markets.

[...]The mortgage and credit crisis was caused by the inability of a large number of home owners to pay their mortgages as their low introductory-rate mortgages reverted to regular interest rates.[...]

[...]Claims that there was no warning of the crisis were further repudiated in an August 2008 article in The New York Times, which reported that in mid-2004 Richard F. Syron, the CEO of Freddie Mac, received a memo from David Andrukonis, the company's former chief risk officer, warning him that Freddie Mac was financing risk-laden loans that threatened Freddie Mac's financial stability. In his memo, Mr. Andrukonis wrote that these loans "would likely pose an enormous financial and reputational risk to the company and the country".[...]

I'm no economics whiz, at all, and may well be misunderstanding the cause of the crisis ... but it seems to me that "insurance" hedges that were paid out on foreclosures induced a crisis in capital, which is why banks are now required to set aside more reserve against obligations.

[The Grand Nudger]

Their inability to pay was caused by the rapid decrease in the value of the homes they purchased on credit, which the banks would not have extended, if the percieved value of the home (and buyer) did not exceed the value of the loan.  The rapid decrease in that value was due to a collapse in exotic instruments.  They milked the cow one too many times, suddenly a  million dollar home was worth -not a million dollars- and those loans were defaulted.  It would have made very little fiscal sense for the individual homeowners -not- to take out those loans and build that equity.  They were essentially buying money.  Or so they were led to believe...and so the banks accepted, because without the real asset of the home there was nothing to base the instruments upon (mortgage derivatives), but the banks didn't want to assume the liability of the real asset, and so shifted that onto the home buyer..........as the engine of their own little sideshow. They ignored what warnings they had- because it was profitable to do so, and so like that home buyer...it would have made little fiscal sense to be responsible with their credit -. It was a win win for the instruments, regardless of whether or not the homebuyer defaulted, as some of those instruments actually -depended- upon default.

We got scammed......plain and simple. It;s not the fault of the people who trusted the banks and their pocket appraisers. Personally, I made off like a bandit due to the collapse, but I can't, in good conscience, actually pin the collapse on those who were scammed. Course, this is the very last thing you'll hear from a bought government, a bought investigation, a bought bank, a bought bailout.......it's all the degenerate debtors fault......lets start the blame game at the point of foreclosure and not mention why those foreclosures occurred, or even that banks encouraged default in order to milk -yet more money- out of the would-be homeowner....and you, John Q. Taxpayer.

Hey, hey! Look over here!
(picks your pocket over there)

We -gave- them that reserve after the collapse, so it's not exactly a hardship to have to set aside someone else's money, after bilking some other party, in order to go back to the same old scam.......which is exactly what they've done, btw.

( I dont know why, but I felt like a dirtbag after the collapse for not understanding it, so I took the plunge and looked into exotic instruments...surprised the shit out of me, it's riveting.,..I expected it boring, but I devoured everything I found. The guys who ran this shit could have run a clinic on the more famous mobsters and scammers we're all familiar with, but the whole thing was absolutely within the letter of the law..law enforcement didn't even understand these derivatives and so there wasn't much they could have done if some -did- cross the line. Really came out of left field for me. I don't know, you might find it interesting as well.)

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'll definitely have to read up on it more -- thanks for the lead.

[The Grand Nudger]

Yeah, I wish I could do it justice......but the subject is huge, and I;m, like you, a novice swimming in a sea of unfamiliar jargon..lol. Take a look at Goldman Sachs and synthetics, btw...that shit will piss you off. They were churning out securities to encourage more (and higher value) mortgages while creating synthetic instruments betting -against- those mortgages they encouraged. Fucking brilliant.

[Thumpalumpacus]

That's the source of my skepticism, the creation of counter-bets. But I still think that home-owners signed on the dotted line themselves.