I don't know why this was an unpopular comment. I believe they meant to say "to solely blame". I think Michael Lewis did a very good job at showing the crisis was caused by what I dub the 5 pillars:
1) Greedy bankers who were trying to maximize their bonuses by selling high risk instruments.
2) Predatory home loans that allowed for the financial instruments to exist and all the people associated (the lenders, the salespeople, etc.)
3) A completely backwards system for how the ratings agencies work and how their greed outweighed their duty to correctly rate instruments.
4) Greedy home owners who wanted to "keep up with the Jones" by having bigger and bigger homes and didn't understand their risk exposure.
5) While this is not explicitly mentioned by Lewis in his book, I think he makes it quite clear that simple regulation could've cut one of the previous four pillars from propping up the crisis.
Regardless, I thought Lewis' book was more of a treatise on how incredible human greed in all facets of the economy caused the collapse. Not just the investment banks, although they are certainly partly to blame.
1) Greedy bankers who were trying to maximize their bonuses by selling high risk instruments. 2) Predatory home loans that allowed for the financial instruments to exist and all the people associated (the lenders, the salespeople, etc.) 3) A completely backwards system for how the ratings agencies work and how their greed outweighed their duty to correctly rate instruments. 4) Greedy home owners who wanted to "keep up with the Jones" by having bigger and bigger homes and didn't understand their risk exposure. 5) While this is not explicitly mentioned by Lewis in his book, I think he makes it quite clear that simple regulation could've cut one of the previous four pillars from propping up the crisis.
Regardless, I thought Lewis' book was more of a treatise on how incredible human greed in all facets of the economy caused the collapse. Not just the investment banks, although they are certainly partly to blame.