> Meanwhile, banks are allowed to legally sell financial poison?

You will rarely catch me defending the banking industry... but what you're calling "financial poison" here is just how mortgages work in most of the world. A variable rate loan isn't inherently predatory, that's how most loans work.

There are many legitimate reasons a buyer might prefer a variable rate mortgage: the trade off is easy to understand. It takes ten seconds to do an internet search for "interest rates past 30 years" and see the risk. I refuse to accept that most people with ARMs were taken advantage of.