Quote Originally Posted by Koga No Goshi
Subprime: we give loans to people who really shouldn't have them. In fact lots of times we don't even check the numbers!
Correct me if I'm wrong. But they wouldn't have made those risky loans had Fannie/Freddie not been so eager to snap up those mortgages and repackage them.

Quote Originally Posted by KurkiKhan
So, a question:

If WaMu's bad paper (and a mini-run by depositors) made it "unstable" according to regulators, and JP Morgan could afford to fold WaMu's bad paper into its own operation - presumeably at something less than a net loss... do we taxpayers really have to still pump $700Bn of unearned cash into this system? Might the behind-closed-doors dithering on the bailout, actually have been a good thing, and that bailout now be moot? Might the market just correct itself (leaving shareholders flat, of course)?
Shhh, you can't ask questions like that.