John Garamendi: “You have raised a very, very important point, and it's the history of how all of this came to pass, about a mortgage…”

“You have raised a very, very important point, and it's the history of how all of this came to pass, about a mortgage industry that had run amok, that had engaged in predatory pricing and predatory mortgages and selling products, mortgages and loans, that they knew the homeowner could not possibly afford, maybe during the teaser rate period, but when that teaser rate was over in a year or two and the rate readjusted and reset, it was all over. That's the history of what was going on. It was Wall Street and its minions out there throughout the United States, the mortgage companies, that were all playing a part of this game. It comes down to basic American values that were not honored. The basic American value. You know, you work hard, you get a wage, you can get a home. But in this case, they were selling people products and mortgages that no way could they possibly afford, and they had no skin in the game. They had no ongoing obligations. You explained it so well, Mr. Driehaus, how that was going on. It comes back to certain values. Wall Street's value was greed is good. That's not an American value. That's a unique Wall Street value. Greed is not good. Greed leads to some real serious problems. You go back through all of the writings in the Bible and other religious writings down through the millennium, and it comes down to the same thing. Greed's not good, folks.”