And I think — for the most part — that is what happens in the U.S.

The problem is it takes decades to determine the upside and downside of regulation/deregulation, and sometimes individuals get hurt while we learn.

We went from a completely unregulated business environment in the early 1900s to a very overregulated climate after the depression, which corrected some problems but caused others and ultimately stifled growth.

The regs were loosened in the 1970s-90s and we’re beginning to see where people exploited the loopholes. Those will be closed over the next few years, I imagine, and we’ll start all over again.

i imagine regulation can meet somewhere in the middle between too much and not enough. and that lenders can act more on behalf of their clients, as financial counselors, rather than potential swindlers.

The higher the return, the greater the risk. And vice versa.

Losing your money in a high-risk, high-return business isn’t robbery. (And I say this having personally lost money in both Enron and Olympic Financial, two high-risk businesses that went belly-up).

The no-doc loan thing cuts both ways. People complained for years that lenders were too tough on people, that they discriminated or used inproper measures to determine eligibility (such as income or ZIP code).

So the regulations are changed and lenders loosen their requirements, and then people complain that they didn’t screen out people who couldn’t afford their loans.

Which should it be?

and my poor, dying mother, lost all of her money to a supposedly reputable financial company which offered exorbitant interest rates on a shady product called “investment notes.” the company, abfs, recently filed for bankruptcy, which means my mother’s money is completely wiped out. she has no recourse. there is a class action suit pending, but she’ll probably be dead by the time that ever gets resolved.

this was, flat-out, a robbery, for which nobody will be indicted. people were enticed by the ridiculously high interest rates and believed it was a pretty solid choice. for a few years, it was. christ, even i had a little money with them, but i pulled out when i began to get suspicious of the company and their much too-good-to-be true product. unfortunately, because the interest was still coming, my mother didn’t heed my advice to remove her money. abfs was a subprime lender.

In addition, he repeatedly portrays people of color as being ignorant fools completely at the mercy of unscrupulous “white” businesses.

His point of view is not only wrong, it is prejudiced and offensive.