Who's to blame...?

They all contributed to the financial crisis - Wall St, Government, Regulators, and consumers on Main St.

Why did the Government promote home ownership as being so integral to the American dream (Fannie and Freddie being instruments of making it happen...) ? Didn't that cause hordes of citizens to aspire to buying and living in a home (that they couldn't afford at times)? And, of course, campaign contributions that may have forced them to turn a blind eye to potential laws that could have averted it.

Clearly, the regulators were too busy watching porn or being in bed with Wall St's army of banks and law firms to actually do their jobs and play watchdog. Incentive misalignment and all that - sure, but what about their sense of duty?

And, who asked Joe Blow on Main St to buy a home they could not afford? And, of course, get neck deep into debt just because Citibank or Capital One was giving them a credit card? It's simple mathematics - if you spend more than you earn, you will be in trouble. I guess they forgot the lessons their parents taught them.

Last, but not the least, Wall St - who plundered away billions of dollars (and millions of jobs, lives, blah blah) with complex financial instruments, manipulations and outright lying. Their defense is 'We were just responding to what we were incentivized to do'. Cute, but clearly at some point, they lost their sense of right and wrong. Probably, they never had that sense to begin with, right Mr. Gekko?

While everyone has had a role to play, among the lot, Wall St is the one that's getting the most of the rough end of the stick - at least as far as commentary goes. 'I hate Wall St' has become a very popular movement.

Unfair, says Wall St. But, I say its OK. It's this category that's the most mismatched in terms of role played and adverse material impact, i.e. they have had the least to lose for the influence they had on the crisis. Stated otherwise, the other parties played an equal role in causing the crisis, but are having to bear a bigger brunt in material terms (Ok, maybe not the Govt. per se).

While the above argument could be counter argued, all said and done - for once, its ok if Wall St happens to be the fall guy. After all, they make the most money for the least value added to society. So, screw 'em!!!

(That being said, Wall St has only had to face criticism - almost none of the honchos who precipitated the crisis have had to deal with any significant punishment. Bottomline - the common man has gotten screwed and perhaps will continue to get screwed.)