George Bailey, the generous hero of It's a Wonderful Life, is one of Hollywood’s favorite characters, but in light of the recent financial crisis, Condé Nast Portfolio asks a pertinent question: “Was George Bailey a reckless subprime lender?” Bailey runs Bailey Savings & Loan and “is a generous lender and lenient collector.” His rival, Henry Potter, is a supposedly villainous businessman who argues for tighter lending standards.” Today’s subprime lenders weren’t bighearted do-gooders like Bailey, but “perhaps Mr. Potter wasn't just a heartless Scrooge. Perhaps Mr. Potter, in the absence of sufficient regulatory oversight, was the one voice of sanity keeping the good people of Bedford Falls from over-leveraging themselves.”
Read it at Portfolio
