this blame the investor, speculator, etc is back again huh.
if there were more value than risk in the banks, then someone would buy them and the shorts would get squeezed.
if you are leveraged 40-1, then you need what, a 2.5% drop to wipe out your equity. in the depression, 8000 banks were wiped out. 5000 more went out of business in the 80s. in this cycle, we've lost like 25 so far. we have a ways to go.
let's start putting the blame where it resides
1. congress for pushing fannie to back subprime and other risky loans in exchange for implicit backing (just imagine what's going to happen with the politicizing of loans now that they outright own major, major banks)
2. congress, particularly barney frank, and christopher dodd, for not only letting, but outright encouraging fannie to back more loans to unworthy bororowers and hence let fannie get leveraged 200-1 for the sake of the "american dream." (frank is on record saying fannie under government control is a great "opportunity," again, to make loans that they shouldn't be making).
3. congress for passing laws like the Community Housing Act forcing banks to lend to unworthy borrowers lest they be sued.
4. the Fed for providing artificially cheap money to the banks for years if not decades, making it fundamentally unattractive to save.
5. the SEC for letting leverage in banks go to 40-1 from 12-1 in 2004.
6. the banks themselves for poorly managing their risk.
7. borrowers who didn't do their due diligence.
let's not blame investors and speculators for recognizing as much, and for realizing the true value of these banks are or will be < 0.