"... Securitization was based on the premise that a fool was born every minute, Joseph Stiglitz ... told a congressional committee on Oct. 21. Globalization mea

"... Securitization was based on the premise that a fool was born every minute, Joseph Stiglitz ... told a congressional committee on Oct. 21. Globalization meant that there was a global landscape on which they could search for those fools -- and they found them everywhere ..." What he left out was the bit where "I know more than you do" - instead of the essential financial transparency of banks, finance is supplied by non-regulated sources. Where the risk history of where the finance was coming from is removed. To end consumers, all this meant was cheaper finance. It doesn't mean "fools" could be found everywhere. It means the real risk was externalised. You can read the results here ("Mortgage Meltdown", ABC, 4Corners, 2007 ~ http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2008/s2389716.htm http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2008/s2389716.htm ) The Structured Finance industry today is what the Junk bond market was the '80 ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_bonds#Debt_repackaging_and_subprime_crisis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_bonds#Debt_repackaging_and...