“Beyond that, the mere existence of “subprime” loans — i.e., mortgages given to less-creditworthy individuals at higher interest rates — isn’t the problem here. The problems have to do with what was done with the loans after they were packaged, sold and used to make leveraged plays.”

http://yglesias.thinkprogress......he_cra.php

I continue to think that his single quotation from McCain expresses what’s fundamentally wrong with his approach, while inadvertently giving evidence that that approach is fundamentally wrong.

In banking, I have not noted much in the way of differences in my local banks, many of which have been taken over by others. I think we are on the fourth, or maybe fifth, iteration in 20 years in our personal account as it has changed hands to ever bigger corporations. My business account bank was taken over and I lost my interest bearing checking account-so much for the benefits of competition.

So, yes, ChiliMac, some quotes are worth excerpting.