"Bloomberg News reporter Mark Pittman did a 5 part series of on the subprime mortgage crisis chronicling the Wall Street cowboys creation of subprime mortgage derivatives."
"The new standardized contracts they created would allow firms to protect themselves from the risks of subprime mortgages, enable speculators to bet against the U.S. housing market, and help meet demand from institutional investors for the high yields of loans to homeowners with poor credit."
"The tools also magnified losses so much that a small number of defaulting subprime borrowers could devastate securities held by banks and pension funds globally, freeze corporate lending and bring the world's credit markets to a standstill."