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Strategies & Market Trends : John Pitera's Market Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bruwin who wrote (13708)	2/21/2013 2:04:48 PM
From: The Ox	3 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 33421

A lot of the toxic asset buying was done to make commissions now, for products that wouldn't mature for many years to come. With the ratings agencies rubber stamping the underlying derivatives, even "intelligent" bankers were caught with their pants down. They were playing musical chairs and as long as the music was playing, no one was any wiser. Once the music stopped for the first time and it became obvious that there were only enough chairs for about 2/3s of the participants, the fighting started in earnest. I remember telling a very close friend in early 2007 (who was in the mortgage business) that one or more of the major banks were going down. At the time I thought it would be Citi. I knew it would end badly for some. He thought I was totally out of my mind. Said to say that he was nearly crying when he called me the day Bear Stearns went down and couldn't believe what was happening. He was sobbing on the other end of the line when Lehman went under. He told me I was the only one he knew who said it would end like it did. Like many in that industry, he lost his business during the fallout. I greatly appreciated the posts from this thread and a number of others back in 2006-2008. A lot of food for thought was being put forth by the participants here on SI!! Not everyone would listen (or believe it) back then.