a whole series of loan products , peddling them aggressively to people who did not have the ability to pay those loans back. when they say sign here, sign here, and they tell you that they told you everything that s important about the loan, you think they have and you just sign. i just feel so stupid. the whole system was designed to go after people with marginal means and then to put them in the highest cost loan possible because those are the loans that paid the most fees. the banks didn t have to care anymore about whether the loan got paid back because the loan had been sold to wall street. instead of keeping the dicey loans in their own portfolios, the big banks and giant mortgage companies that were originally underwritten, sold them off to big investment houses. firms sliced the loans into
new york city has over $125 million every year. there s good options for good return on investment and don t involve bad choices for the society. the example given earlier. the anti-apartheid movement 20 years ago. the anti-tobacco movement. these profoundly changed the way both government and the private sector acted. so we need to understand. the outrage in this country over guns, particularly after newtown, the highest point we have ever seen if we re going to change anything, the tool of public pension funds, the tool of going after the big investment houses is valid and looking at that case of tobacco industry you re saying the job of the new york state controller, he doesn t just have a fiduciary responsibly to taxpayers, he has a moral responsibility, that s part of the job? absolutely. absolutely. because you cannot have a situation where our country s in danger. our children are in danger and don t do anything about it just