Semantics are very important when you launch new programs and products…
I thought that the term “toxic assets” was not the best descriptor for the subprime mortgage assets that the Treasury program was created to bail out…
I felt they should be called “corrupt assets”… Wikipedia defines “corruption” as…
~~~~ ” …Corruption, when applied as a technical term, is a general concept describing any organized, interdependent system in which part of the system is either not performing duties it was originally intended to, or performing them in an improper way, to the detriment of the system’s original purpose….” ~~~~
I think we could easily say that some borrowers, mortgage brokers, investment banks/securitizers, and credit rating agencies created “corrupt” securities and derivatives…
But “toxic” got a foothold… and is now the term de jour… and the Governor of Alabama sees the Treasury’s toxic waste dump as a good place to try and drag the Jefferson County sewer bond problem… cause it’s “toxic” you see… the Bondbuyer has the story here … Governor Riley describes Jefferson County, in a letter to the Treasury Department, ”as a poster child for how the subprime mortgage crisis is hurting Main Street America…”
Governor… may I amend your quote? It might read more accurately to say… ” Jefferson County is the poster child for how corrupt investment banks are hurting Main Street America…”
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