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by ethbr0 1223 days ago
The 2008 crisis was directly caused by human greed, at all levels, and failing to be reigned in by regulatory bodies.

It's unreasonable to blame one source for something that metastisized over years, involving most parties in the financial sector, until exploding.

Banks could have chosen not to do this business or to hedge their risk in a better way. Credit ratings agencies could have shown some independence and objectivity. Derivatives buyers could have done more due diligence on what they were buying. Home buyers could have looked at the market and said "This is way too hot, and the party can't go on forever."

Deregulation handed everyone rope, including us, and we all hung ourselves.

It stings when you get personally @+$#ed, and it feels good to blame massive, systemic failures on one source, but they're systemic failures for a reason -- because the entire system was culpable.