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All financial crises have a common trait: A few smart people exploiting the market. The smart people in the 2008 crisis were those who had been bundling CDOs t

All financial crises have a common trait: A few smart people exploiting the market. The smart people in the 2008 crisis were those who had been bundling CDOs to hide the bad debt in the decades before, as well as those who insured themselves against the blowup _knowing that it would blow up_. They _depended_ upon the majority of financial institutions believing the lie that the property market would never crash. That's the stupidity in Hanlon's Razor for the 2008 crisis, exploited by the few smart ones.

cosmodisk 7y ago
I was just a few of years out of school,I think it was 2006. Walked into a local bank branch to get some stuff sorted out.The women tried to sell me some private pension scheme,which was popular at the time.I asked her what would happen if the bank would fail,to which she responded with uncontrollable laughter and finally managed to say: banks don't fail. Well,I thought, I'm sure as hell I won't be buying products from this bank..We all know what happened 2 years later.
- rchaud 7y ago
  While this person obviously didn't empathize with your concerns, it should be mentioned that bank tellers are often under pressure from higher ups to sell products to walk-in customers, regardless of whether they need them or not. And the easiest way to sell is to basically tell the customers that their concerns aren't valid. The most egregious example of this is the Wells Fargo scandal, where new accounts were created for customers without their knowledge [1]. Similar complaints can be found with pretty much all major banks. It's a natural consequence of a culture where employees are ordered to upsell customers on lines of credit, new credit cards, and other financial products. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Fargo_account_fraud_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Fargo_account_fraud_scan...
- aguyfromnb 7y ago
  >We all know what happened 2 years later. The savings and loan fiasco of the late 80s saw over 1000 banks fail in 10 years.
qxnqd 7y ago
"blowup" is a noun and "blow up" is a verb. Your sentence should read: >as well as those who insured themselves against the blowup _knowing that it would blow up_
- Jestar342 7y ago
  Thanks.

cosmodisk 7y ago

I was just a few of years out of school,I think it was 2006. Walked into a local bank branch to get some stuff sorted out.The women tried to sell me some private pension scheme,which was popular at the time.I asked her what would happen if the bank would fail,to which she responded with uncontrollable laughter and finally managed to say: banks don't fail. Well,I thought, I'm sure as hell I won't be buying products from this bank..We all know what happened 2 years later.

rchaud 7y ago
While this person obviously didn't empathize with your concerns, it should be mentioned that bank tellers are often under pressure from higher ups to sell products to walk-in customers, regardless of whether they need them or not. And the easiest way to sell is to basically tell the customers that their concerns aren't valid. The most egregious example of this is the Wells Fargo scandal, where new accounts were created for customers without their knowledge [1]. Similar complaints can be found with pretty much all major banks. It's a natural consequence of a culture where employees are ordered to upsell customers on lines of credit, new credit cards, and other financial products. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Fargo_account_fraud_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Fargo_account_fraud_scan...
aguyfromnb 7y ago
>We all know what happened 2 years later. The savings and loan fiasco of the late 80s saw over 1000 banks fail in 10 years.

qxnqd 7y ago

"blowup" is a noun and "blow up" is a verb. Your sentence should read: >as well as those who insured themselves against the blowup _knowing that it would blow up_

Jestar342 7y ago
Thanks.