User talk:Richard Katz

The discussion of the inaccuracy of the article's title seems to have died in Nov 2010, or just about the time when we were learning just how little this Great Depression had to do with sub-prime mortgages. I am tagging my 'talk' on to yours because yours, by far, the latest 'talk' comment. According to a former president of one of the NYC 'Big Banks', what he would consider truly "sub-prime" mortgages amounted to about $30B, maybe $40B. A mortgage could be "sub-prime" for numerous reasons, not the least of which were 1) Sale price and 2) Commission & Fees level to the salesman and/or broker. Prior to TARP, the Fed had already made $2T in "emergency loans" to two (I believe) entities. Since the TARP $700B was handed out, more than $18T has been doled out to the Big Banks & Brokerages, just by the Fed. So clearly, while there were shenanigans in the issuance of mortgages, "sub-prime" has been used as a scapegoat term, as one 'talker' cast it, to generate 'sympathy' to obtain the momentum for the 'Bail-out' legislation. Mystified homeowners or re-modelers were blamed, not the gambling Bankers & Brokers. The CDO "overhang" was, coincidentally, $21T in Fall '08, as of Aug 2011, it was over $210T! And rising. Perhaps, this article needs a sub-title. While for many, "sub-prime" is burned into their unconscious, a new sub-title could be incorporated, e.g., 'Bank & Brokerages Panic of '07 and Investment Banks & Brokerages Panic of '08', which could convey some of the serial causes. Still, too little importance has been assigned to the compounding result of Crude Oil Speculation(Fall '07 - Fall '08), in which 2 Wall St entities played a significant role, as the 'final nail' or trigger for the 2008 Meltdown. Still that does not convey the 3rd Great Depression extent and depth that we have experienced (I am counting the 1893 & 1907 Depression, which lasted until after WW I, as the 1st Great.) Tgsherer (talk) 16:08, 22 September 2012 (UTC)