Jackie Speier: “I think the American people are a bit confused as to what is really going on here. And, you know, it's a lot like the…”

“I think the American people are a bit confused as to what is really going on here. And, you know, it's a lot like the Humphrey Bogart movie: What's going on here is gambling, plain and simple. It would be one thing if these so-called investment banks like Goldman Sachs were lending into the productive sector of the U.S. economy, if they were lending to people who had good ideas to produce products and goods, employ Americans and help us compete in the world economy. But they are not doing that. In this case, they weren't even helping to package and move mortgages off of people's portfolios and someplace else. They were merely mimicking with what are called synthetic collateralized debt obligations, packages of bad or potentially bad mortgages to bet on, for this one hedge fund to bet against and make a billion dollars. But then, of course, unfortunately, other parts of Goldman Sachs, apparently unbeknownst to them, I mean, in totally good faith, went to clients of Goldman Sachs and said, Hey, we've got a good product here we'd like to sell you.”