reginos:

There was a significant degree of deregulation from the 1980s onwards in the spirit of absolute market capitalism that required as little state intervention as possible and promoted the ethos that only the market forces mattered.

The US Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in 2011 clearly stated that:

"the crisis was avoidable and was caused by: widespread failures in financial regulation, including the Federal Reserve’s failure to stem the tide of  toxic mortgages; dramatic breakdowns in corporate governance including too many financial firms acting recklessly and taking on too much risk; an explosive mix of excessive borrowing and risk by households and Wall Street that put the financial system on a collision course with crisis; key policy makers ill prepared for the crisis, lacking a full understanding of the financial system they oversaw; and systemic breaches in accountability and ethics at all levels"

These Wall Street people, bankers etc all operated in an unregulated  free-for-all with the State in the role of a bystander.

I agree with the above.  But the root causes are the rule changes as approved or policies promoted by our Government, effected well beyond Reagan's time.  Most changes were signed into law by President Clinton.  The only one not (well beyond Reagan's time), was the Communities Reinvestment Act of 1977, signed by Jimmy Carter, but promoted further with teeth by Clinton.  The only de-regulation signed into law was the repeal of Glass-Steagal (signed into law by Clinton).

The rules of the game were changed.  The players took advantage of the rule changes.  We should, at a minimum, blame the rule changers.

 


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