I Am The 1%

So for Halloween, I went as the 1%. Should've been the .1% but the 1% is more inclusive. HA. I was decked out, spruced up, and fitted in my grey, three-piece suit, white collared shirt, with a Red, White, and Blue tie, to show support as a costumed job creator. I also wore a sign, and that sign went: I AM THE 1%, followed by a bunch of small print. Throughout the night people kept asking me to read the sign, attached to a twine lanyard around my neck, rested on my chest, then the reader would get annoyed by the small print and say, "I can't read this, the print is too small and there's to much," and I would retort, "Just like everyone else between 2004-08". HA. Anyway, I am putting the text from my chest in to this blog in case anyone wanted to finish.


As early as 1997, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, a colleague, fought to keep the derivatives market unregulated. With the advice of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, the U.S. Congress and President allowed the self-regulation of the over-the-counter derivatives market by enacting the Commodity Futures Modernization Act in 2000. Allowing derivatives such as Credit Default Swaps (CDS). The volume of these outstanding swaps increased 100% from 1998 to 2008, with estimates ranging from US $33 - $47 trillion. Total over-the-counter (OTC) derivative notional value rose to $683 trillion by June 2008. Warren Buffett, obtusely referred to derivatives as "financial weapons of mass destruction" in early 2003.

Offsetting a particular risk of exposure (such as the default of a borrower) or assisting with obtaining financing, my colleagues and I developed a range of products we phrased as Financial Innovation: examples include, the adjustable-rate mortgage; the bundling of subprime mortgages into mortgage-backed securities (MBS) or collateralized debt obligations (CDO) for sale to investors, a type of securitization; and of course, my favorite, (CDS) a form of credit insurance.

Between 1997 and 2006 the price of the typical American house increased by 124%. This explosion in housing costs resulted in quite a few homeowners refinancing their homes at lower interest rates, or financing consumer spending by taking out second mortgages secured by the price appreciation.

From 2000 to 2003, with the help of colleagues who lobbied, and also worked at the highest levels of, the Fed, the so-called “National” Bank helped us lower the federal funds rate target from 6.5% to 1.0%. This was done to soften the effects of the collapse of the nerd heavy dot-com bubble, off-set a drop in consumer spending after the terror attacks of September 11th, and to combat the perceived risk of deflation.

Intense competition began between mortgage lenders for revenue, market share, and the limited supply of creditworthy borrowers. This caused mortgage lenders, more colleagues, to relax underwriting standards and originate riskier mortgages to less creditworthy borrowers. Prior to 2003, the mortgage securitization market was dominated, via the Left, and over-regulated by the very fiscally conservative Government Sponsored Enterprises.

The term subprime refers to the credit quality of particular borrowers, who have weakened credit histories and a greater risk of loan default than prime borrowers. The value of U.S. subprime mortgages was estimated at $1.3 trillion as of March 2007, with over 7.5 million first-lien subprime mortgages outstanding.

With the housing and credit bubbles built and in demand, a series of factors helped the financial system to both expand and become fragile because of 99%’s desire for the American Dream. A process called Financialization, in which financial leverage overrode capital (equity) and financial markets tended to dominate over the traditional industrial economy and agricultural economics. Defaults and losses on other loan types also increased significantly as the bubble expanded from the housing market to other parts of the economy. Total losses are estimated in the TRILLIONS of U.S. dollars globally.

I am the 1%. Beget by the 1%. My contacts list only includes the 1%. I went to the top 1% of Prep and Ivory League schools where, because I was beget, I met other children and young adults, the future 1%, that became my friends and colleagues, as well as, was vetted by the upper echelon of the previous 1% through connected families, advisors, and mentors. I am the 1% and I have more than enough money to wait out the 99%, Occupy my 1% lifestyle, and lobby my colleagues in Congress to further decrease regulations. As the 1%, I live in a American Reality only 1% of our society knows, saw the 99% praying, nay dreaming for a piece of my American ideal, and then I began, along with my colleagues, preying that Dream to beget the next 1%.

Fact, terms, and quotes taken from Wikipedia. For what it is worth.