Financial mag. editor: Wall Street shadow market ‘a crime’

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CBS News’ Steve Kroft reported on how some arcane financial instruments magnified the economic crisis.

Jim Grant, the editor of “Grant’s Interest Rate Observer” said, “A trainee making 45,000 a year would have had the common sense not to bet the firm on mortgage contraptions that no one in the firm actually understood. That is not a deep point to comprehend. Somehow, through, I will call it a criminal neglect and incompetence, the people at the top of these firms chose to look away, to take more risk, to enrich themselves and to put the shareholders and, indeed, the country, itself, ultimately, the country’s economy at risk. And it is truly not only a shame, it’s a crime.”

CBS News had more details here.

This video is from CNN.com, broadcast October 5, 2008.

Download video via RawReplay.com