It's kind of a chicken and the egg thing.
What came first, the lobbyists or the policy that enabled them to become rich enough to manipulate policy?
Did congress empower Roland Arnall to create Long Beach Savings? Did they force him to give up his banking license and create ACC - whose sole mission was originate mortgages? Nope.
Technically, the article title is incorrect - the Subprime pirate armada was built in Long Beach before it sailed to OC with Admiral Arnall at the helm.
Sorry, though I'm certainly not going to argue that Congress doesn't have corruption problems; the whole "but but but, the big bad government maaade us do it" excuse just does not fly.
Notice that I said allowed and enabled.
Through deregulation, subsidies, lower interest rates, etc.
Nobody could start anything in Long Beach without someone out east (or maybe also Sacramento) giving the go ahead.