Dave: I agree with much of what you’ve said, but I would like to post a bit of rejoinder when it comes to risk. When you have no less a luminary than Alan Greenspan touting the efficacy of all these newfangled financial instruments and how they are effectively distributing risk throughout the entire system, well, there are a lot of folks, including some seasoned financial pros, who are going to take that at face value and behave accordingly.

The fact that they should not have is patently obvious, but it underscores my point that the entire system was a rigged game and one that was, to a certain extent, backed (verbally) by the “full faith and credit of the United States government”.