The stock market is in a tailspin after the U.S. government lost its AAA credit rating for the first time in history, raising echoes of the catastrophic Wall Street fallout three years ago. But how did it all begin? Who were the key players? Where do regulators go from here? Here, we recount the Center […]
Category: Who’s Behind the Financial Meltdown?
The top subprime lenders whose loans are largely blamed for triggering the global economic meltdown were owned or backed by giant banks now collecting billions of dollars in bailout money — including several that have paid huge fines to settle predatory lending charges. The banks that funded the subprime industry were not victims of an unforeseen financial collapse, as they have sometimes portrayed themselves, but enablers that bankrolled the type of lending threatening the financial system.