You should read this then. The Rolling Stones article gives the briefest glimpse into one of several reasons why the collapse happened. As a "financial person" I found the New Yorker article both fascinating and incredibly edifying.
Dude, that is a lot of material to chew on, but I'm gonna do it. Economics has never been a specialty of mine, but I see no reason not to hone my knowledge. Thanks, ref!
For the record: Michael Lewis is a vastly better writer than Matt Taibi. He's gotten several books out of financial shenanigans, and all of them are great. I've read (and enjoyed): - Liar's Poker (his memoir of being at Solomon Brothers as it crashed) - The Big Short (about exactly this) - Boomerang (about the aftermath of exactly this) - Flash Boys (about high frequency trading) Oddly enough, I've yet to read Moneyball.
Matt Taibbi is one of the reasons I gave up on Rolling Stone, which I subscribed to for years as a youngster. Even when I agree with his sentiment, I feel slimy reading his words. They always strike me as less than the whole story, and purposefully so. I get that we can never get the whole truth, that editorial objectives color everything we read, and that everyone has an agenda, but he just seems like a liar to me. NYT covered this particular piece, and while they praised some of his expose, they also noted a bunch of errors, liberties with the truth, and straight up calculated misleading statements.