The Government Made Them Do It

It has become a pillar of conservative thought recently that the economic crisis wasn't caused by a lack of government regulation, but by poor people and the ivory tower liberals who love them. In 1977 those dastardly liberals in Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act, and then our innocent captains of the financial industry were forced to give loans to poor people which caused the apocalypse thirty years later. This view of the economic crisis has even appeared on this very blog, but I believe it is wrong for reasons summed up here. I would put more blame on the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act if we're focusing on the government, but I still believe most of the blame lies with the shitbags on Wall Street. I guess I'm old fashioned.