How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
These companies disclosed their ever-growing earnings, but not much else. (1.29)
This is the beginning of the end. As soon as financial companies and banks try to hide their investments, it becomes inevitable that someone will use that obscurity for ill.
Quote #2
A mortgage created in early 2005 might have a two-year "fixed" rate of 6 percent that, in 2007, would jump to 11 percent and provoke a wave of defaults (2.10)
At the root of the 2008 financial crisis are cruddy, manipulative home loans that jump up massively in price after a fixed two-year period. Think about that for a second. The world economy almost collapsed because of those shady loans you get in your junk mail. Scary thought, huh?
Quote #3
[T]here were huge sums of money to be made, if you could somehow get [bonds] re-rated as triple-A [...] however dishonestly and artificially. (3.29)
Once subprime mortgage bonds become a hot item in the financial market, bond traders realize that they can make a lot more money if they trick the ratings agencies into rating them more highly. Of course, that's straight-up fraud, but did that ever stop Wall Street before?