Bill Nelson: “I wish to talk about not just the stimulus bill but how we need to address this overall economic crisis, which the more…”

“I wish to talk about not just the stimulus bill but how we need to address this overall economic crisis, which the more we hear about, the worse it gets. If we don't watch out, we are going to be in a downward economic spiral. Look back to where we got into the mess. Wall Street allowed banks to make too many bad home loans. They were home loans the homeowners could not afford, and many times they were rushed into signing these kinds of agreements when their income level would not support that kind of mortgage. Then Wall Street bundled thousands of those mortgages-- sometimes you heard them referred to as subprime--and sold them as a security. Those were bought and sold throughout the financial process, from financial institution to financial institution. They were sold at a profit. There was little or no regulation. Of course, the bankers walked away with billions of dollars in bonuses and the taxpayers now have to clean up the mess. Well, what began as trouble in the housing market quickly spread to the financial system and, from there, to the economy as a whole. The revenue stream for these mortgages was cut off because people weren't paying their monthly payments on the mortgages, and therefore the revenue from these bundled securities of bad mortgages weren't paying off, and that started rippling through the entire financial system for whoever held those bundled mortgages. What started as an American problem now has become a global problem.”