The rise in no-doc, no-equity and ARM loans in the US were a direct result of monetary policy and lack of regulation of the credit derivatives market.
While I agree that's true, I also believe it still puts the cart before the horse. Yes, the bulk of those loans came after the regs changed, however the regs changed precisely to allow more of those loans.
So while the actualization of the plan came post-reg, the regs are a result of the plan, not vice versa.
To now blame the people who signed on to these loans when the banks pushed them on them is ludicrous.
This I disagree with. People have to be held responsible for their own actions. Nobody held a gun to anyone's head. It's also unfair, because not extracting the pound of flesh from people who made clearly idiotic decisions is a direct punishement on people - and there were many of them - who acted prudently and avoided taking on unsustainable debt loads.
Blaming the supplier is just a rehash of the completely failed war on drugs approach.
This does not absolve regulators/leaders for their culpability, of course.
