re: #347 eschew_obfuscation

Yes, that is my understanding. And when the inevitable happened, widespread default on the subprime mortgages, the underlying equity of those financial instruments evaporated. The 30 times leverage they were using turned around and worked in reverse, taking down bank after bank. The politicians built a house of cards and then a down turn in the economy pulled the bottom card (subprime mortgages) out.