PR-No doubt that every American that took part was in some way, shape or form and to some degree is culpable. That I think is indisputable and you won’t get an argument from me. And we will pay collectively for everybody’s sins. My point is that we had mechanisms in place and supposedly responsible people in charge. Not people that feed and encourage peoples greed and fill their head full of fairy tails such as home prices never go down and all that other nonsense. It was a mass delusion put forth by the financial industry and Fed, amplified by the media and allowed to happen by certain politicians, people in the financial industry and orchestrated by the FED , IMO.
What I am specifically looking at is who benefited the most. Hank Paulson made about 700 million while in charge of Goldman Sachs. We sent China 700-800 billion a year during boom times. With that fake wealth the built up their manufacturing base and stockpiled commodities as we hollowed out our economy. In other words turned it into something real when Americans went shopping. Heck, even after tragedy GWB was telling us to send money overseas.
I think maybe we just have been a little naive to call our leaders incompetent, that narrative also makes us feel superior because many of us saw this coming and we get to say “I told you so, look at me I’m smarter than Alan Greenspan”. But just maybe they are extremely competently but they just have different goals than us. Or maybe I’m wrong and Paulson’s trips to China and China being the inadvertent biggest beneficiary of the housing bubble is just coincidence. Either way I think it is something to ponder.