Every story needs a villain. Austin has Dr. Evil, Superman has Lex Luthor and the Bears have Rex Grossman. There is not one single villain in the subprime fiasco, but CNNMoney just published a list of villains, each with an assigned blame factor. Here is the summary:
- Borrowers 3/5 (blame factor)
- Mortgage Brokers: 3.5/5
- Appraisers 2/5
- Mortgage Lenders 4/5
- Wall Street 4/5
- Rating Agencies 3.5/5
- Federal Reserve 4.5/5
As you can see the top three are the power brokers in the financial markets. The rest of us just got caught up in the hysteria they created. Its good to see that the author agrees with me that you can’t hang the mortgage brokers for this one. Read the full scoop here.