When starting the research for my books , “The Quiet Rich” and “Reawakening the American Dream” , I was serving corporate agendas and getting paid well to do so but had explicit concerns about the current state of affairs. I warned that derivative abuses and credit concerns at the highest levels could cause pecuniary upheaval. A massive real estate downturn and Great Recession followed. Banks that caused the recession through their own risky investments (permitted by Congress’s repeal of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act) drove themselves out of business—only to be bailed out with taxpayer dollars.
Ironically, when homeowners couldn’t make their mortgage payments, these same banks foreclosed on the very taxpayers who financed their rescue!
The whole debacle caused devastating suffering for the majority of society—people who paid a high price for those arrogant mistakes. It was no surprise to associates close to me that I became increasingly uncomfortable with the widening disconnect between the super-rich and the ordinary people who traditionally drove economic prosperity.
