Sandy Weill

The Aftermath

With Glass-Steagall out of the way, Sandy Weill had his merger and the American financial industry now had a green light to enlarge on subprime lending. Some followed Weill’s model of consolidating loan and insurance companies as he had done with American Health & Life and Travelers, taking loansharking to a level those who had engaged in it back when it was done in storefronts with peeling paint could have never imagined.

More money than any organized crime syndicate could have dreamed of flowed into the coffers of the subprime lenders. What had been an activity aimed mainly at people of color now became linked to complex financial instruments such as tranches and derivatives, that to an uninitiated mind resembled nothing so much as the old shell game. Where’s the mortgage? Under this fund? No. guess again. Inner city and suburb which had been separated by redlining became linked by acronyms–MBS, CDOs, CMOs. But as we shall see in the next essay, ripping off people of color would continue.

http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/did-racism-help-cause-the-mortgage-crisis-the-rise-of-sandy-weill-and-citigroup.html

Citigroup’s shareholders — the same people who were arguably defrauded by its failure to disclose its exposure to subprime mortgages in the first place. And that means you and I are liable, too. Taxpayers own 18 percent of the company.