— Matt Taibbi and Molly CrabappleThere were also horrific regulatory surrenders like the Securities and Exchange Commission’s 2004 decision to lower capital reserve standards for the top five investment banks, a move that eventually helped three of those banks (Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, and Lehman Brothers) to borrow themselves out of existence.
Replicated under Fair Use from The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap by Matt Taibbi and Molly Crabapple. (Pg. 19)