John Garamendi: “So on the buy side, they would be giving information that was inaccurate, that Standard & Poor's, the rating industries…”

“So on the buy side, they would be giving information that was inaccurate, that Standard & Poor's, the rating industries of the world would go out and use some, I don't know, gimmick to re-rate this tranche, this piece of that tower, re-rate it as though it was more valuable and more secure than it really was. So we really had a cabal here, and that is why the regulation of Wall Street is so critically important to us as individuals, in our homes, in our ordinary life, in our ability to keep a job. It is also important for the financial system of America. Banking is crucial to the economy, and when you get a banking industry that is playing financial games rather than simply making loans, we are going to find ourselves in trouble. The creativity of Goldman Sachs, we now know from the hearings. We also know that other major banks and mortgage lending companies were playing similar games. So that is what we are trying to do as Democrats, is to rein in Wall Street, to set new rules in place that will force the banks to be banks; not to play risky financial games, but rather to do the everyday lending, taking deposits, making a loan that is sound, and making those loans on Wall Street.”