Re: [tlug] Open-source Japan

["david.blomberg" <david.blomberg@example.com>]

> in the S&L crises in the US and Japan, Congress pushing hard to get
> industry to lend to subprime borrowers in the current mess).  It's not
> clear that *any* of them would have happened if the market had been
> left to its own devices.
>   
You are aware that this failed the laugh test. 

  A few years ago I sat in on a investment seminar.  It was to sell the 
sub-prime investments to the Japan/Asian market.  The speaker cited that 
a few years earlier they were shut down by the government of the US 
under the guise of predatory lending.  The sub-prime was a reworked 
version that "fixed" the predatory nature and allowed them to make loans 
to people of questionable credit.  This was accomplished by giving them 
an initial loan that would increase their credit score so they could 
give them the full loan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_lending