Not just a mortgage crisis: how finance maimed society

摘要

The mortgage crisis was the culmination of a larger transformation in the American economy toward a finance-centered model. From corporations operated exclusively to create shareholder value, to banks that had become facades fronting for financial markets, to households tied in myriad ways to the markets, finance came to permeate American life to a degree that would have been hard to imagine a generation ago. Moreover, it was not just a change in the economy, but a change in society. A financial sensibility helped transform a nation of ants into a nation of grasshoppers, and turned most families' major savings vehicle - their home - into a liability, with consequences to be felt for years to come. (At this writing, projections indicate that one-third of mortgages will be underwater within months.)