[michaelt]

Yeah, we had a global financial meltdown in 2008 because it turned out the people who graded securities didn't look too closely at what they were grading; turns out customers wanting their bonds rated wouldn't choose rating agencies that applied an inconvenient level of scrutiny.

It'd be naive to expect the pokemon card industry to be better regulated.

[lotsofpulp]

Technically, it was the lenders that weren’t verifying borrowers’ income and work histories.

Theoretically, there is much less chance of “liar loans” due to digital real time records via services like The Work Number and ADP.

[Xelynega]

I don't think you're talking about the same thing.

Part of the 2008 financial crisis was that lenders were giving loans out to anybody, and then even though information was available showing the low likelihood of paying back those mortgages the rating agencies rated the bundles of mortgages as high quality low risk.

So the problem starts with loans going to anyone, but the crisis was caused by ratings agencies wanting to keep clients rather than do their jobs.

[Retric]

Inability to verify borrowers income had zero relevance to “liar loans.”

Banks had plenty of options, they purposefully decided not to use them.