Lax regulation, risk taking caused 2008 crisis

Reuters:

The financial crisis was avoidable and the result of poor decision making both in Washington and at top financial firms that fostered a culture of excessive risk taking, according to a draft report.

Among regulators the report singles out former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and his successor Ben Bernanke. The report faults Greenspan and his allies for pushing the idea that financial institutions could “police themselves.”

Bernanke and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson were criticized for not seeing the problems in the subprime mortgage markets earlier.

Clinton administration officials were rebuked for pushing to shield over-the-counter derivatives from regulation.

Continue reading here.