> Blaming the problem on "people" is also missing a large part of the problem. The breadth of the crisis meant that it affected a lot of people who had never he

> Blaming the problem on "people" is also missing a large part of the problem. The breadth of the crisis meant that it affected a lot of people who had never heard of CDOs, and never should have. People lost their jobs in totally unrelated fields. Companies couldn't grow because credit dried up while the mess was sorted out. People couldn't sell their houses because the entire market crashed. And so on. Sure, but i'm not sure what this has to do with my point. Should we ban internet stocks because the market was irrational in 2000? > There were systemic effects, where a whole lot of people were making apparently sensible local decisions and nobody understood the entire interaction -- but that's not really a good justification for shrugging shoulders and say, "Well, I guess it's everybody's fault, then". Ok, but how does that cash out in any kind of coherent policy recommendation?