How do you kill the American dream? One way is to finance people in over their heads, in essence creating debtors out of hard-working people who, in a more sane economy, would be accruing assets. It appears we are ready to go down the path of deregulation again all too quickly. From the New York Times:

“Financial deregulation is similar to relaxing rules on nuclear power plants,” argue Anton Korinek of Johns Hopkins University and Jonathan Kreamer of the University of Maryland in a related working paper for the Bank for International Settlements. It makes it easier and more profitable for the utilities, their shareholders and executives. It might also help ordinary Americans get cheaper electricity. “However, it comes at a heightened risk of nuclear meltdowns that impose massive negative externalities on the rest of society.”

Read more at More Renters, Less Risk for Wall St. – NYTimes.com.

And, for a first-hand account of what it feels like to be ripped off by an unscrupulous bank: http://www.rifuture.org/the-mortgage-debt-crisis-murders-the-american-dream.html