Was it caused by those things? Or was it just a speculative bubble popping, which has happened countless times in the history of the republic, long before the modern regulatory state and modern banks ever existed?
"The East Asians' troubles, votaries argue, derive from their heretical deviation from free-market orthodoxy -- they were practitioners of "crony capitalism," of "ethnocapitalism," of "statist capitalism," not of the one true faith."
Very much speculative bubbles being popped. One of the most interesting things was what Dr. Michael Burry (one of the main characters in Michael Lewis' The Big Short) noted in a recent interview:
"The biggest hope I had was that we would enter a new era of personal responsibility. Instead, we doubled down on blaming others, and this is long-term tragic."
Huge amounts of fraud too. Wall street is basically a pyramid scheme at this point where everyone thinks they'll get out on time to get rich.... mirroring symptoms of a serious gambling addiction.
Would agree, but I think greed doesn't fully capture the culture. Incompetence plays a large part in this, on the part of the regulators and the actual banks.
The regulators refused to downgrade the credit ratings of products as the banks would go to their competitors if they did, and they would lose money. Corruption, greed, incompetence... call it what you like, it still falls under fraud. If there is one snapshot of behaviour in a capitalist system that highlights the flaw of the system it has to be this. Why do regulators need to make money? An absurd conflict of interest.
