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Crisis Probe Bares Fools' Guilt-Free Fantasy

Deregulation, greed made crash inevitable

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Jan 15, 2010 1:24 AM CST | Updated Jan 15, 2010 2:37 AM CST

(Newser) – The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission hasn't extracted admissions of wrongdoing from top bankers, but it has exposed stunning cluelessness among the captains of American finance, writes Paul Krugman. The honchos testified that a financial crisis is something that just happens from time to time, Krugman writes in the New York Times.

Goldman Sachs’s Lloyd Blankfein went so far as to compare the crisis to a hurricane that nobody could have predicted, Krugman writes. But it's obvious to everybody except the bankers that it was caused by the deregulation that dismantled protections aimed to stave off such a crisis, he notes. Those seeking to reform the system to prevent another meltdown should "ignore advice coming from the supposed wise men of Wall Street, who have no wisdom to offer," Krugman writes.

Top execs from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase ,Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010, before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.
Top execs from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase ,Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010, before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.   (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
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There was nothing accidental about the crisis. From the late 1970s on, the American financial system, freed by deregulation and a political climate in which greed was presumed to be good, spun ever further out of control. - Paul Krugman

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 4 comments
bewilderbeast
Jan 15, 2010 10:39 AM CST
You buy the BS, riffran? You believe people can deliberately loosen rules of liquidity and sell unsustainable products, then claim "they didn't know" it was a guaranteed failure unless everything ALWAYS KEPT GROWING? Thought you had more savvy than that.
SilenceDogood
Jan 15, 2010 8:50 AM CST
They are asking an institution to testify on its own failings, as Bill Cosby would say, “Right”.
Riffran
Jan 15, 2010 7:58 AM CST
There is no "One " cause and no "one" cure for that mess
 

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