There's a certain element that comes and goes. As you quite appropriately said, there's a buck to be made, and they decided to make it. And you're right, I think they got their fingers singed a little bit on the way out this time. They weren't able to retreat before they actually took the loot and ran. They actually got burned.
I'm not suggesting that this makes anyone happy, of course. What we're trying to do is ensure that the liquidity of the market comes back into play and that we can actually help businesses get going, and consumers as well.
You talked about secured financing and you talked about how to bundle. You used the lease example. The other part of that, from Mr. Lake, is that the asset that secured that particular lease, which was the vehicle, actually depreciated in value in the first place, and it started an unravelling of all kinds of things at the same time. General Motors and a couple other folks got out of leasing vehicles because to buy the car back at the end was about 30% less than what they actually had written into the contract in the first place. A $13,000 buyback was worth about $9,000 to the auto sector when they bought it back. That's about what they could sell it for. So there was a great depreciation in all that.
I appreciate the example, because it was eminently easy to follow, because some of this stuff is not. And it seems to me that the easier and more transparent we make this system, so that we can actually follow the penny as it moves, the better off we all are. The risk becomes less in the sense that as long as you can follow it, it doesn't continue to be marked up as it goes. For each piece that moves, it seems to me--and correct me if I'm wrong--someone needs to take a piece of the penny to actually make themselves stay in business. Otherwise, they're simply benevolent organizations, and I don't think they're in the business of being charitable. So if that's the case, it seems to me that fewer steps in the process rather than more would be an advantage to businesses.
I'm not negating the fact that the financial system is a complex instrument. It is international in scope, and that makes it difficult.
Do you see any way to eliminate the number of times these instruments change hands?