Forum Post: Still want Justice

Unfair State of America.

The lack of any significant action to bring the perpetrators of the housing / banking crisis of 2008 to justice is undermining American society. The basic principle of law and justice in our country is a hinge pin of our identity and a point of pride supporting our moral authority in the world. The men and women who devised the CDO ( mortgage backed securities ) mortgage lenders, Mortgage brokers, securities brokers, government regulators, lawmakers and rating agencies all colluded to create the worst financial blunder in history. As the warning signs mounted that this market was in serious trouble they failed to unwind it in a responsible fashion and instead created CDS's ( Credit Default Swaps ) to insure a retun on these securities ( toxic assets ). These people knew the mortgages being sliced, diced and bundled for sale were not likely to be repaid and continued to press forward until the bottom inevitably dropped out.  Consequently our lawmakers bailed them out with 100s of Billions of our tax dollars. The Wall Street Tycoons and Bankers promptly used the money to pay the CDS's many of which they the had acquired as a hedge against the very securities they had been selling. They continued to pay themselves huge salaries and obscene multi-million dollar bonuses. There is no justification for this monitory reward when they had just mismanaged their companies to the brink of collapse. The banks that were bailed out with tax dollars failed to modify loans and foreclosed on millions of mortgages throwing the people who saved them into the streets. The rating agencies, who gave these CDO's AAA ratings, suckered investors including state and local pension fund managers and insurance fund managers into investing in these bad securities. Now who do you think is going to pay to make up these losses? That's right, working Americans.The same rating agencies are now downgrading government bonds in foreign countries, exacerbating the monitory crisis they helped create.  This group of people, their greed and incompetence, have caused the biggest loss of wealth and security since the Great Depression. They make Bernie  Madoff  look like Oliver Twist. What are the consequences of their actions? When will they be held accountable for their wrong doing?