WB - 5 years ago many people thought housing prices couldn't fall. People levered up on the biggest assets they own 20T in housing of 50T total assets.
MDY made a huge mistake, the public made same so did Congress.
We don't call companies and tell them what to do and our luck in changing behavior is low. If you buy stock you better not assume you can change it.
In regards to selling, it's a business that has a small amount of people and effects the capital mkts. They are under fire but fundamentally they are good business models.
We don't pay attention to ratings. We do not believe in outsoucing investment decisions. If they are off we can make better assumptions.
CM - for a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail. They seeked out inputs to make fancy models work.
WB - one answer u can never give at brk is everyone else is doing it. That's unacceptable. We were very unsuccessful at Solomon. We tried to stop doing biz with Mark Rich and they wouldn't let us. U remember CM?
CM - I certainly do
