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No offense, but you're mistaken. There were a plethora of applicable regulations. Remember, we're talking about securitsed loans at the root of the problem. There are 3 separate regulatory agencies that must pass on bundles of securitised loans before they can be put on offer.

Greedy bastards? Yep, no shortage of those. The greedy bastards couldn't have put the ball in play, though -- couldn't even have got the game going -- without the sheer and persistent incompetence of SEC, COC, CFTC, FASB, HUD, and easily a dozen other alphabet-soup agencies.

Remember, we're talking about securitsed loans at the root of the problem. There are 3 separate regulatory agencies that must pass on bundles of securitised loans before they can be put on offer.

AIG didn't fail because of securitized loans. They were done in by credit default swaps that were anchored in air -- and not regulated.

Greedy bastards? Yep, no shortage of those. The greedy bastards couldn't have put the ball in play, though -- couldn't even have got the game going -- without the sheer and persistent incompetence of SEC, COC, CFTC, FASB, HUD, and easily a dozen other alphabet-soup agencies.

While I can certainly agree with you about the incompetence of those groups -- not to mention the politicians who appear to have stayed bought -- the greedy bastards are still to blame for their actions.

An honest financier would not have played the games those guys did.

You’re not talking about securitized loans. You’re talking about securitized debt obligations (CDO/CDS)which weren’t regulated by the agencies you mentioned....