Or included some of the details (like why cutting the interest rate stimulates the economy — the very same thing that the Eeevil Investment Bankers are doing: investing.)

Or mentioned that the Eevil Investment Bankers that were pushing the sub-prime mortgages were government-sponsored organizations (Fannie and Freddie), or that the reason they were pushing the subprimes was because they were required to by law if they wanted to continue to make prime mortgages.

It’s a good thing it was a thesis project in media design; he’d have gotten an F in Econ.

Hey guys, if you want people to believe your wild and distorted theories, you need to at least provide references (primary references preferred).

There’s plenty of blame to go around; any explanation that pins blame on one group or individual is a clear indication of ideological/political blindness. And blaming things like the CRA is just lame (see e.g. http://www.usnews.com/blogs/th.....-act.html).

The special sauce, without which we might have just a popped bubble rather than a train wreck, is too much leverage. Excessive leverage is seen at the scene of every major financial meltdown- LTCM is still my favorite example, because it’s so well documented (see, e.g., When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein). Having better controls on systemic leverage won’t prevent all financial debacles, but it would sure prevent the chain reactions that occur when people are forced to deleverage, which always happens because, well, something always happens that exposes the brittleness of over-leveraged positions.

Without insane levels of credit default swaps, which are like unregulated, uncollateralized insurance policies, we’d be in much better shape right now (see, e.g. AIG).