The 10 people most responsible for the recession

 

The global financial crisis has evolved into a worldwide recession of epic proportions. Analysts fear the sudden slump which has followed the credit crunch could even rival the Great Depression of the early 1930s and lead to global stagnation.

But who is responsible?

The bursting of the housing bubble and the collapse in confidence throughout financial markets was not caused by one individual or a single decision, so pointing the finger of blame is a near-impossible task. But Times Money has given it a shot anyway. Here are ten suggestions for the nine men and one woman responsible for the mess we're in. Once you have read our notes, vote in our poll and make your own suggestions in the comment box at the end of the piece.

1. Dick Fuld

Multi-billionaire and US squash all-star Dick Fuld, 62, was CEO of Lehman Brothers when it went bust in September last year. Dubbed the “scariest man on Wall Street”, Dick Fuld is blamed for a litany of mistakes that include leaving Lehman Brothers heavily exposed to toxic US sub-prime mortgage debt and other assets that collapsed in value in the wake of the credit crunch.

His secretive work ethic, which rewarded loyalty over all else, has been criticised for silencing potential whistleblowers. In its final months a series of interested buyers surfaced to save Lehmans, but Mr Fuld would not sell at the prices offered. Had he acted sooner, he would have been able to avoid bankruptcy. Institutional Investor magazine named Dick “America’s top chief executive” in 2006. The collapse of Lehmans triggered the second destructive phase in the credit crunch and laid the foundations for a full blown global recession.

2. Hank Paulson

If Dick Fuld is responsible for the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Henry Paulson, the former US Treasury Secretary, is the man who let it happen. Anatole Kaletsky, of The Times, says: “The global banking collapse could perhaps be described as a bullet in the head, since its proximate cause was a conscious decision by the US Treasury to jeopardise the stability of the world economy in pursuit of an essentially political objective - to show that the Bush Administration was willing to act ruthlessly against at least one big Wall Street investment bank. Until that point, savers and investors around the world had assumed that financial institutions such as Lehman were “too big to fail” and would always be supported by their governments. By shattering this belief Henry Paulson triggered a run on every important bank in the world and caused the sudden implosion of consumer and business confidence seen in the past two months.”

Hank didn’t just let Lehmans fail. He made a series of mistakes in the run up to the Lehmans collapse. He also proposed a £700 billion package to boost the US banking system. And how did Hank come up with a figure of £700 billion? “It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com, the US financial website. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”

 

3. Alan Greenspan

Alan Greenspan was feted for his management of the US economy while he stood in charge of the US Treasury, but has since been put under the spotlight. He was responsible for cutting interest rates to near zero in the US in the aftermath of September 11, flooding the world with cheap and easily available money. Did this pave the way for a “once-in-a-century credit tsunami"? In October last year he said: “I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interest of organisations, specifically banks and others, was such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders.” 

Allan Meltzer is a professor of political economy at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, said: “Alan Greenspan was much too afraid of a slowdown or other recession…he allowed the credit to expand too rapidly."

 

4. John Tiner/Hector Sants

John Tiner was in charge of the Financial Services Authority, the watchdog that polices the UK ’s complex financial services industry until 2007, when it was taken over by Hector Sants. The FSA failed to keep a close eye on Northern Rock, the Newcastle-based ex-mutual which gorged on wholesale mortgage securitisation and came a cropper as a result. A key parliamentary committee has said that the FSA was guilty of a "systematic failure". Mr Sants accepted that the organisation under Mr Tiner failed to stress-test the business model of Northern Rock and spot signs that the bank was dangerously dependent on interbank funding to remain in business. "We should have been in more intense dialogue earlier", he has said. 

5. Fred “the shred” Goodwin

The "world's worst banker" has brought the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Britain's second biggest bank, to its knees. Last week it announced humiliating losses of £28 billion, the biggest in British corporate history, and economists and analysts have concluded that it could soon be fully-nationalised. In mid-January, taxpayers saw their stake in the banking giant increase from 58 per cent to 70 per cent.

Sir Fred joined RBS in 2000 and promptly embarked on a spending spree, acquiring 26 banks in seven years for more than £35 billion. These included NatWest and stakes in America and the Bank of China. In 2006, its share price stood at £13. But at the close of trading on January 28, RBS shares were trading at a near-worthless 15.9p.  

In 2000, after the takeover of NatWest, RBS’s board rewarded Sir with a £2.1 million annual salary, including a bonus of £814,000 for the takeover — more than any other UK bank chief received that year. It paled in comparison with his £2.86 million bonus in 2007. Three months ago, in October, Sir Fred left the bank under a dark cloud that has now mushroomed into a thunderstorm. On the day his departure was announced, Sir Fred said he was "sad", adding: "Nobody will ever tell you that they feel good the day they have to step down.” The Prince's Trust recently dumped Fred The Shred and the campaign to strip him of his knighthood is gathering pace.

 

6. Gordon Brown

Apparently Gordon Brown predicted the global financial crisis ten years ago, in a speech he made to Harvard students. Sadly he did little to prevent it. James Gordon Brown was Chancellor of the Exchequer during “the longest period of growth” in the UK ’s history, but economists blame Mr Brown for encouraging soaring house price inflation and the spread of credit which fuelled the years of boom and led eventually to the current bust.

In a recent speech to the London School of Economics, George Osbourne, the Shadow Chancellor, said: "Our competitors used the fat years to prepare for the lean years. Britain did not. We are the least prepared country in the developed world to cope with the current financial turbulence. Our financial reputation has been badly damaged by the only run on a retail bank in the world. Our double deficits - external and fiscal - are worse than any other European economy. Taken together, they are worse than the United States." The blame "lies squarely and fairly with Gordon Brown", he concluded.

 

7. George Bush

The former President was in charge during the boom years when the seeds of the sub-prime implosion were sown, but has failed to take any responsibility for the financial disaster which occurred on his watch. In a speech last year he blamed the bankers in New York for the problems facing his country's economy. “Wall Street got drunk…The question is, how long will it [take to] sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments?” 

8. Kathleen Corbet

The credit rating agencies have been blamed for failing to ask tough questions about the collateralised debt products containing so many toxic sub-prime mortgages, which investors traded for millions of dollars during the booming housing years. The three biggest agencies have been accused of taking the word of investors and not properly assessing the risks involved in securitisation. Mrs Corbet was head of the biggest credit rating agency, Standard & Poors, before she quit amidst heavy criticism in 2007. Critics argue that S&P and its main rival Moody's, as well as other agencies, face an inherent conflict of interest, in that many of their clients issue securities that are rated by its analysts.

9. "Hank" Greenberg

Another Hank. This one was head of AIG, the insurance giant that had to be rescued in an £47 billion US government bailout just days after Lehman Brothers was allowed to go bust. Hank was in charge between 1967 until 2005, during which time the insurer got heavily involved in the murky world of credit default swaps. Mr Greenberg appealed to the US Government to save the company last September, saying: "It's a healthy company financially except for liquidity. No organisation around the world has the spread of risk that AIG does. It's a company that opens markets - letting it go down would be a dramatic mistake."

10. Angelo Mozilo

Mr Mozilo was head of the largest sub-prime mortgage lender in the US, Countrywide, until July 2008. Sub-prime lenders in the US have been accused of using misleading marketing to push unsuitable mortgages on sub-prime homeowners who could not afford to service the debt, the root cause of the credit crunch. During the housing boom, Mr Mozilo reportedly earned $470 million in salary and other income. Mr Mozilo has also been under the spotlight for a VIP programme in which politicians and senior officials in the Government were offered favourable mortgage deals. Earlier this month Bank of America agreed to buy Countrywide for about $4 billion (£2 billion). Meanwhile, Mozilo unloaded $141m in stock options before the company's share price collapsed.

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Comments

[Doug]

It is hard to take serious an article that can't even get the name of a company correct. It is Countrywide not Countryside. In any case the President of the U.S. has very little control over the economy. It is the congress that controls the banking regulations as well as manages the purse strings.

[Pissed Off At All Of Them]

It was very difficult to choose which one was responsible. I think overall it was a collective irresponsible behaviour of all of them - and more.

The regulators are responsible for not regulating the financial institutions correctly. Most of the complex financial instruments were not necessary and in actual effect covered up losses. In addition the value of these "assets" were overvalued by the financial institutions. Had the regulators taken steps to monitor the financial institutions correctly - with the help of the Credit Ratings Agencies - this would not have happened.

What would have happened is that the profits made over the past 20 years would have been a lot smaller, but realistic. The flow of credit would have been steady but not over the top. The recession would have most likely not happened for another several years and when it would have hit would have been much less serious.

The Credit Ratings Agencies should have done what they were paid for. They were paid to monitor the companies on their lists and rate them accordingly. Had they made an effort to understand the financial instruments being traded, they would have realized that any reliance of income on such a complex arrangement cannot be that valuable and should therefore be downgraded in its value. Financial institutions would have seen that these affect their ratings - hence ability to obtain decent rates on inter-market lending and thereby profit margins - and would have acted accordingly.

The financial institutions should have plainly not acted so greedily.

ALL are too blame and ALL should be ousted from their positions and stripped of ALL honours, pensions and other benefits.

[Zoo]

Where is Bob Rubin, Lawrence Summers and Phil Gramm, the three biggest proponent of deregulation that allowed the world's largest ponzi scheme in history to happen. If you are going to throw in Bush, you might as well throw in Clinton since the planning happened during his watch.

[Noel Larensen]

Interesting that you didn't note Jimmy Carter, originally responsible for the CRA bill. Bill Clinton, who gutted the few protections out of the CRA and a cast of bumbling bureaucrats like Bawney Fwank whose perpetual lies to congress about Fannie Mae should be criminally prosecuted.

Naaa, let's find a scapegoat, as usual.

[John Reyes]

I think Bill Clinton's picture should be included. On his watch, the 'Community Relocation Act' was passed. Everyone in America should own a home.......at first the Feds pressured financial lenders to provide low income folks with getting creative loans that could not be paid back. Then, greed set in with the financial companies and everyone who wanted a creative loan could get one. Well, the rest is history. You just can't print our way out of this mess. All governments, city, county, state and the feds need to cut their budgets and reduce taxes. We all know that governments are a drain on taxpapers and do not produce one single item. Keep printing money, raise taxes and see what that will get us. A continuing disaster. Buy gold and silver because like Germany in the 30s, it will take a wheelbarrow to buy a loaf of bread. Be concerned that the Feds will try to take your precious metals, just like Germany. Buy guns and gold because we are going to need both.

[bob]

BUsh actually tried reign in freddy and fannie but Frank and Dodd would have no of it. Loaning to people who dont have the ability to pay it back was just ignorant democrat social engineering

[David]

Was it not ACORN that filed a lawsuit against banks making them lend to unqualified buyers, and was not Obama an attorney for ACORN. Also, Congress just last year said Fannie Mac and Fannie Mae was in great shape and anybody said otherwise was racist. Next time look at the whole picture instead of triing to push your political agenda (interesting picture of George Bush, it kind of shows where your political agenda stands).

[NYer]

Agree with Doug, they where is barney frank's name? poor story indeed.

[Lexx Aston]

In Browns defence on interest rates ergo cheap credit they are set by the MPC not the goverment. So the MPC should be added to the list in Browns place.

[John]

Great picture of Bush!(Sarcasm) WHy don't you run a picture of a baboon?

[Dr. J]

The econonic downfall was triggered by oil prices going too high. The price of oil caused inflation and interest rates to rise; consequently, mortgage holders with adjustable rates, all of the sudden, couldn't pay their mortgages. Banks holding Mortgage instruments also suffered as a result. Then these companies held out their hands for money, over a 6% national mortgage foreclosure rate! They should have filed for Bankruptcy. By the way, which party did not want to drill for oil and wants to reverse Bush's request to allow drilling? It's the Dumbocrats fault! Bush and then McCain, a couple years later tried to fix the Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac problems, but who stopped them ? The Dumbocrats!

[DANSHI]

YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES FOR RUNNING THAT PICTURE OF PRESIDENT BUSH. TOTALLY WRONG! WHERE IS BARNEY FRANK AND CHRIS DOWD?

[James]

How typical of the media to run a picture of our former President like that. Do you see any of the other 9 people on this article with a humiliating picture? What ever happened to fair and balance. So much for our Media Watch Dog of yesteryear.

[vic]

Don't forget abourt Peloski and her bunch. They were in on the Fannie and freddie knowledge

[Pob]

I like the Bush picture. It makes him look more intelligent...

[GMThomson]

You should have had Bill Clinton way up there. He allowed the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act, told Fannie Mae to accept mortgages from people who had not previously been eligible to acquire nortgages. George Bush askled Congress to reign in Fannie Mae (Budget Report 2001). US Congress did not act

[The equalizer]

This pathetic. How can you narrow this entire mess down to 10 people? As others have stated you are missing several other key players to this mess here. I think we need to trim the media down. You people are out-of-control and simply post crap to keep your jobs intact. Do some research and post facts, and what is with the picture of George Bush. You people need to quit being so one-sided and get back to the roots of ethical journalism. Oh wait, what am I talking about, ethics? Pffft.

PATHETIC

[Emily]

It is a product of Bill Clinton's socialist scheme that "everyone should have a house." The Feds put pressure on banks to give mortgages to minorities whose primary sources of income were welfare checks and food stamps. NEVERMIND that they clearly could not and would not pay their mortgages. Now those of us who actually pay taxes and contribute to society, rather than take away from it, are being punished for Barney Frank's stupidity.

[Juan McAmnesty]

1. I hate Bush, but your bias-pic of him displays your lack of journalistic integrity.

2. Where is Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, ACORN ? Where is the stupid consumer who spend huge amounts of money on credit ? Where is the Homebuyer who bought a home they could not begin to afford ?

3. CHINA !!!! China should be 1-5 on this list and you are all so partisan and reactionary you don't even begin to understand this truth.

Morons !!

[Dan Schwartz, Sayreville, New Jersey]

Jamie Gorelick: She bookended the two disaters during President Bush's tenure.

In 1995, she was the deputy Attorney General who issued orders to heighten the wall between the FBI and CIA, directly leading to the September 11th terrorist attacks.

In an ironical twist, Ms. Gorelick ended up as one of the Democrat members of the 9/11 Commission, when, in fact, she should have been in the Witness chair.

But, Ms. Gorelick's one-woman wrecking crew didn't stop there: She ended up as a vice president of Fannie Mae, the $5 trillion GSE (government sponsored entity) mortgage buyer at the nexus of the subprime meltdown.

Of all the liberals whose willful blindness has led to harm, Ms. Gorelick is unique in her being at the center of both 9/11 and the Financial Disaster.

[Rebecca Taylor]

just one... Ronald Reagan...

[Wayne]

Don't forget The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, which was designed to encourage commercial banks and savings associations to meet the needs of borrowers in all segments of their communities, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. Also, there was the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974.

[Tim]

It's easy to pin so much on George W. Bush, considering that his entire presidency was a blunder. But, in fairness, Bill Clinton should most certainly be included in this list.

[Charlie B, Bristol]

Whose to blaim?

They are, you are, I am. We all jumped on this latest housing bubble. We will all do it again in the future as we with with shares when they are rising. Who can resist a rising market.

You all have very short memories - roll on the next bubble that I can ride.

Thanks.

[Matt]

Where is the option for "all of us"?

[Ken]

Don't forget the oil cartel. I think the insane and unjustified run-up of oil prices last January started the whole house of cards to fall.

[Brad]

HMMMM...I wonder which way this publication leans politically? I don't know, it's so hard tell by the complete absence of any Democrats on the list let alone that numbers 1-3 belong to Bill Clinton, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. The Republican Leadership have no b@llS and Liberals have no class or integrity and both are driving this country into the ground. When you guys start being journalists and stop being pundits let me know and I'll start visiting your site again.

[clifford fevold]

I think the fractual banking policiy
is the culprit: only the banks can loan out more funds than they have.

Can you tell me where the lost trillions of dollars?

[Sharku]

You call yourselves Journalists ???

In a pig's eye!! You clowns are nothing but the propaganda arm of the Leftists and Communists. #1 on this list should have been Jimmy Carter with his Community Reinvestment Act, followed by Bill Clinton, Barney Franks, Chris Dodd, Maxine Waters, Acorn (just to mention a few). After reading the current House Bill I can see this recession not only deepening but perhaps even slipping into depression. The democrats have just sold my grandkids and their childrens future for a little feel good now.

[Mitch]

Another political hit piece to further rewrite history to blame Repblicans for liberal policies (See Chris Dodd and Barney Frank) Affordable housing for everyone was the democratic mantra. Look where it got us. Gardeners could buy 500,000 homes with no money down. Republican efforts to reign in Fannie Mae were fought off by Democrats and main stream media. But you blame no democrats and it's effective because you can never underestimate the stupidity of the American people.

[andrew]

None of you have got it completely right. The British FSA is correctly singled out for blame after the event but the rot started with the US regulators. They stood back and did nothing while toxic financial instruments, mainly sub-prime mortgage debt, was hawked around the marketplace and sold to institutional investors. And from there it spread around the world.

[THOM]

NYSLIMES lost it"s file photos of Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barney Frank & Christopher Dodd !! DBTLL

Rebecca, how"s the kool-aid ?

[Bjimmer]

You forgot to include yourselves and all the other political hacks that place partisanship over Nation, and you have misled the less intelligent half of our population down this path to destruction.
I hope you understand that your propaganda is also leading to your rag's collapse.

This rag does not print the news or anything even remotely resembling the truth.

[gazza]

always look at the eyes,they tell
what the person is really (thinking)
speaking.

[Arthur O]

You forgot to mention the Democrats in the U.S. Congress who since the 1970's have denied the existence of and continued covering up the toxic mortgage situation and who continue to believe that government can make everyone happy and healthy at no cost.

[michael J]

This is really sad, If you did not want to include any Democrats you should have at least had a disclaimer stating such.
Did you guys not post an article On Friday, September 30, 1999. (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1)
Talking about how relaxing the credit scores could lead to a bailout of Fannie and Freddie? And yet you did nothing to stop it?
I guess that puts you at the top of the list.

[paul]

What a shame Mrs. Corbett was not a member of the Bush clan before she married. That way, we could blame Kate Bush.

[David Allen]

The Democrats are responsible for this encouraging Fannie and Freddie to lend money to those who couldn't afford to pay it back. Fraudulent lending practices by banks to those with no stated income is what is responsible for this. These loans were given to illegal immigrants who would have never qualified for any loans. They took the houses - got 2nd mortgages and sent the money back to Mexico. Now we're stuck bailing out the banks because the stupid politicians allowed and encouraged this to happen.

[Patriot]

Lame list. For shame.

Where is BILL CLINTON??

DUH!

[David]

How about Barak Obama? Once it became clear that Socialists would be winning the election thereby controlling the legislative and executive branches of government, credit providers began hoarding cash. Fear of the damage about to be done to the US economy vis-a-vis socialism is what is driving the Recession.

[Lester Tobias]

You can't put Bush in there if you're not going to put Barney Frank in, as well.

[Joe]

Barney Frank and Chris Dodd are responsible for the toxic sub-prime mortgage paper and for forcing banks to make the toxic loans.

[Eileen Mullen]

I personally viewed BILL CLINTON on
TV explaining how in 1999 he RELAXED
the credit requirements and this also forced the BANKS to relax their underwriting requirements. He stated "he didn't want the fat
cats to get the money" RIGHT

[Eileen Mullen]

I personally viewed Bill Clinton
approx. (10/08) on T. V. explaining
how in 1999 HE RELAXED or changed the regulations and therefore also
relaxed or forced the banks to relax
or GIVE lending to UNQUALIFIED borrowers. Bill Clinton STATED he
didn't want the FAT CATS to get the
money. RIGHT!!!

[z_boson]

Who said the following as chancellor?

1) "No more boom and bust" several times

2) After repeated warnings from the IMF - "There is no house price bubble"

What has happened is a disgrace given the prudent warnings of the IMF. To make matters worse, he now claims he saw it coming, yet bizarrely did nothing about it; this is unforgivable.

We need a change of government.

[TFH]

The buck stops ... where?

[unclesmrgol]

George Bush is NOT one of the creeps. Nor is Allen Greenspan, who warned of the coming meltdown. The Clinton Administration was responsible for making the laws which gave Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (the center of the meltdown) the ability to grow to the point where they threatened the US economy, and Bush tried to rein them in but failed due to opposition from the Democrats in Congress. Classic is the confrontation between Bush Administration official Armando Falcon and Congresspersons Barney Frank and Maxine Waters, in which Falcon, appearing before Congress, attempted to warn it of the impending doom, and was personally attacked as a racist for claiming that the books were being cooked at Freddie and Fannie. Waters famously enthused about how these organizations were enabling people of color to buy homes with nothing down, a fact which in hindsight lead to speculation and superheating of the home sales markets here in the US. The collapse of Freddie and Fannie led to the collapse of home prices, and all that fake money in toxic loans has led us to where we are today.

One of the minor bit players in this whole fiasco was a small-time attorney named Barack Obama, who participated in a lawsuit to force CitiGroup to participate more fully in the Freddie Mac program, an act which later caused the near bankruptcy of CitiBank.

You ought to read the Washington Post article "How Washington Failed to Rein in Freddie, Fannie"; it's quite instructive.

[unclesmrgol]

George Bush is NOT one of the creeps. Nor is Allen Greenspan, who warned of the coming meltdown. The Clinton Administration was responsible for making the laws which gave Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (the center of the meltdown) the ability to grow to the point where they threatened the US economy, and Bush tried to rein them in but failed due to opposition from the Democrats in Congress. Classic is the confrontation between Bush Administration official Armando Falcon and Congresspersons Barney Frank and Maxine Waters, in which Falcon, appearing before Congress, attempted to warn it of the impending doom, and was personally attacked as a racist for claiming that the books were being cooked at Freddie and Fannie. Waters famously enthused about how these organizations were enabling people of color to buy homes with nothing down, a fact which in hindsight lead to speculation and superheating of the home sales markets here in the US. The collapse of Freddie and Fannie led to the collapse of home prices, and all that fake money in toxic loans has led us to where we are today.

One of the minor bit players in this whole fiasco was a small-time attorney named Barack Obama, who participated in a lawsuit to force CitiGroup to participate more fully in the Freddie Mac program, an act which later caused the near bankruptcy of CitiBank.

You ought to read the Washington Post article "How Washington Failed to Rein in Freddie, Fannie"; it's quite instructive.

[steve davis]

How come Barney Frank and Chris Dodd didnt make the list or their subprime billionaire buddy Bernie Sanders.

Sanders paid off the Democrats on the Senate banking committe to create the subprime market.

[Pennie Wyrick]

Just a comment from a commom folk individual;
First INFLATED housing prices. WHO could afford to REALLY buy a house? Few wages would support that insanity. So the banks made no/low interest for a time? If the banks couldn't look into the forseeable future, and the borrowers couldn't look into the future... I just don't know what to think! All I know is, my husband ( a mailman) and I (a teacher) could not have afforded the inflated price of our home. It was up to a "measly" $350,000.00 at the height of the craziness. We bought in 1998 for 80,000.00. And loans were made to people with less income, and less security in income? What did you think was going to happen?
No way can ANY economy bear that. I once heard only 17% of the population could REALLY afford to buy a home. Rents weren't much better. Housing is a basic neccisity! Doesn't anyone multiply payments and see what one is really paying? Did you think that prices of housing would continue to rise? HOW could they? The super-dramatic rise in prices HAD to be followed by a super-dramatic decrease.
I place the "blame" on everyone who bought, sold, financed,& approved a loan in an overinflated housing market. What were people thinking? If you had a no interest for 5 years, what was you plan in year 6? What did banks think people were going to be able to pay in year 6?
IF you thought housing prices were going to continue to increase, and therefore sell and make a profit, who did you think would be able to afford to buy your house? I mean really, how many people make that kind of money? I know when it was so high in California, a mailman and a teacher could have no way afforded to buy a house!
I guess my point is, these men and women mentioned did not sinlge-handedly create this mess. If you bought and let it forclose, if you sold at an over-inflated price, if you benifited from the sale, you need to take your share of the blame.

[Hal]

You didn't mention those who allowed this international recession to happen. In New York it was the New York Times, in London it was the BBC. The MSM could have stopped the Democrates but they covered everything up.
Thanks MSM.
Hal

[Erik The Viking]

“The British spirit is to see a problem, identify it, and get on with solving it. Once a problem hits us we are determined and resolute and we are adamant that we are going to deal with that problem.

“And that is the resolve, not just of the Government, but the resolve of the whole people.” - Gordon Brown, 30/1/09

Well Gormless Gordon, "WE" have now identified the problem, and it's YOU.

Please go, now!

[paul graham]

You've missed out; Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke, all have more influence that George Bush.

[Chang]

TFH asks "The buck stops where?".

It stops entering our pockets -- haven't you noticed?

There may be 10 people responsible for this mess but there are countless million ordinary suckers.

[eugene]

It will be stupid to blame Gordon for the GLOBAL crisis- certainly he made our crisis far worse. A better poll- Gordon proved himself to be the ultimate moron when he slipped up , claiming he saved the world: Yes or No?; and secondly, Is it good to have the ultimate moron in charge? Yes or No?

[KC]

America wouldn't have a problem george w. stupid didn't plan from day one of his presidency to invade Iraq. The world knew their were no WMD's, but bushy & blair were gung ho & made up lies about it.They thought they could walk right in w/o any problems.rummy said, "it will only take 2 weeks".cheney says "we will be greeted with flowers and sweets". Of course the war for nothing has cost over ONE TRILLION DOLLARS. halliburton charges the government 6 billion a month and they say "we don't have any documentation of the services they claim to have provided. Of course the republicans didn't have a problem with that. they say 'no reciepts? we trust you. If I buy a pencil for work they won't reimburse me 10 cents without a reciept.cheney/bushy didn't have a problem with $4.75/gallon gas. Anyone wonder why gas is all of a sudden $1.75/gallon? the oil companies know that President Obama won't let them pull the same corruption that cheney & the oil companies colluded on together. bushy was also gung ho on "private social security accounts".Can you imagine if the same people who couldn't afford to buy houses, but got mortgages anyway were able to invest their SS by themselves? That would have been the end of the world

[David]

Over the past weeks/months I have read much about the crash. From the UK angle two reports stick in my mind. The first was that in the year 2000 the main British retail banks were lending roughly the same amount as they took in in deposits. By the end of 2007, as the extent of the banks' problems started to become clear, it seems that lending was ten times borrowing. How did this happen?
Perhaps the point made in a BBC interview with the retired Chairman of Lloyds TSB answers this question. It would appear that the monitoring role carried out by the Bank of England was watered down and the Governor ceased to be able to call in the Bank bosses to explain risky lending. Apparently this close monitoring was done on a weekly basis and even the most powerful bankers feared a Friday afternoon summons to the Bank of England by the Governor. The article quoting this did not give the date of the relaxation of this control mechanism beyond indicating that it was in the Brown era.
It would appear that Brown/Blair let the dogs off the leash. How can blame be placed anywhere else?

[S Gamble]

You left out Ayn Rand, whose siren call lured Alan Greenspan onto the rocks along with the reluctant rest of us. There's a simple test; anyone citing 'The Fountainhead' as a great work should immediately be relocated to Mars, thus improving Earth's gene pool at a stroke...

[Russell]

Where's Bernancke?

[pomoc]

This was Jimmy carter who planted the mortgage seed and Bill clinton fertilised it and the jerks that should have kept an eye on it did not .And the wizard of smart Greenspan was wrong as he has admitted.

[Brother Dave]

Who caused the current financial crisis? The question isn't quite right and really not appropriate. The question should be "what caused the current crisis?"

Hmmm, lemme see... Lack of values, morals, ethics, integrity, principles. You know, all those things that make up a good charactered person. Without these things, the world has no hope as people are out for themselves.

So, in reality, we get what we deserve. Now suck it up and go make things right. And don't let it happen again.

[V]

S. Gamble: Ayn Rand was spot on, in the 'The Fountainhead' and "Atlas Shrugged", crony capitalism, and collectivism, leads to stagnation and poverty of many types; proper capitalism (not collectivist corporatism and globalism), and the market, does much better that the current corrupt shambles. "The Austrian School of Economics" says much the same.

I say all of these people are to blame, then going back in time:
the Basil agreement signatories who allowed Banks to speculate, Nixon for destroying the Gold standard, the nasty politicians, lawyers, and judges, who made Corporations artificial "Persons", the sponsors of "The Federal Reserve", Karl Marx and Engels (for their evil texts), the 'Banker' (Robber Baron) cabal who caused the formation of all central banks (and caused evil fractional reserve fiat currency), the fraudulent Goldsmiths of London, the creators of the "The Fleet" and "Fleet Law", the fake Khazar Jews, and the evil 'Jewish' law and money practices from Babylon.

"Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it" e.g. Boom and Bust, Decadence and Depression!

I read and learnt some history, so I now own real money (Gold), because I know that fiat currency is a worthless fiction!

[Rudy]

No1 Responsible: BILL CLINTON
No2 : ALAN GREENSPAN
No3 : JAMIE GORELICK

BUSH made lot of mistakes but he has nothing to do with that!! On the contrary he tried to stop it. Times is highlighting additional bad info about him and also shows an ugly picture of him which forces us to think about the integrity of this Journal. What a shame!

P.S: FRED GOODWIN?? HAHA!! If there's a man who has nothing to do with SubPrime, it is FredGoodwin. Just to inform your shy knowledge, RBS losses are ABN AMRO's writedowns and are NOT originated by RBS. I Can't believe what I'm reading!

[John Samford]

You left the real culprits off your list;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZVw3no2A4&feature=channel_page

[John Samford]

The root issue in '08 was the same as in '29. They called it 'bad paper' back then and derivatives today, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck....
There is an easy way to reign in wall street and still allow it to fulfill it's original function.
Don't allow buyers to sell stock within 3 years of buying it. That will keep the speculators from going to fast and still allow capital to be raised for businesses, which is the purpose of the stock market, in case you have forgotten.

BTW, George Soros belongs on that list also. Add him and see how many votes he gets. You can fool some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
Obama the Usurper is in power today BECAUSE of the stock matket collapse. What was lost in the wreckage is the fact that the SEC launched an investigation into the crash because it look like it was triggered and not a natural event. Obama the Usurper will halt the investigation for now, but once he is shot or impeached, it will start up again. Then we will see if Ol' George has done to Wall Street what he did to the Bank of England.
Nothing like a criminal genius with a few Billion in the petty cash drawer to give capitalism a belly ache.

[Darryl]

Man, there's some real kool-aid guzzling commentators here. Greenspan not the cause? (I'm talking to you unclesmrgol). Clinton and I suppose all other Democrats should take the blame? Bush was also innocent? What else does the right-wing, neo-con transmitter in your heads instruct you to say?

Greenspan has even (albeit tepidly) admitted he screwed up. But don't listen to him! He's never wrong so he must be wrong, right?

You nuts need to crawl back into your nuclear shelters with your collection of Fox Hannity videos.

[downtrodden]

looking to blame 10 People seems a bit of a simplistic offering.

Where are China now? what has the World crash done to Slow down the development of China.

Before you look to blame should you not look at who has the most to gain from such a crises. All of us are puppets, manipulation is the name of the game. While you look to blame you are not looking at possible reasons for such events.

Governments of all Continent's are controlled by the very few powerful individuals (The super rich). Money is the root to all power this is why all Governments are corrupt.

I am a simple person but I measure my judgement against facts. When have we the people ever got what we wanted? History shows us all the way life is. Nothing changes, Money and power are the ruling factors in our lives.so why do you think ten people are the most likely cause for our woe's.

We the people will always be pawns for the super rich and Governments until we stop debating and wake up to the reality of our lives.

I am a 51 year old cynic but I am not delusional nor am I blind.

[James]

This does seem over simplistic view. It is also hard to believe after 8 years in office, that is the best Picture you had of President Bush.

[Sally]

What, no mention of the shameless role that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac played in this fiasco? How about the fact that U.S. banks were prosecuted by Janet Reno for "redlining" and forced to give loans at below market rates to people with no money down, no job, no income other than what they received in benefits from taxpayers? Initially, banks had to lower their underwriting standards or risk prosecution. Eventually banks had to lower standards in order to compete.

George Bush, John McCain and others tried to rein them in F & F but were met with opposition by Barney Franks, Maxine Waters, Meeks and other Democrats who asserted it was 'racist' to even question them.

[Watt Tyler]

All would be hung like Saddam,if I had My way.

[Steve]

I nominate half the American voters who put W. Bush and his Neocon advisors into office.

[chris]

As far as Britain is concerned, Gordon Brown gets the vote. He stood there every budget day boosting about his economic growth while it was all sham under pinned by massive borrowing and debt. For all his rhetoric about making the Bank of England independent, as Chancellor he failed totally in controling the economy

[John Lees]

This crisis has been caused by greedy and reckless financial institutions handing out money like sweets and also,it has to be said,individuals using their credit cards without a care for the consequences.Their financial bubble has burst!For the record,I don't have a credit card and any mail offering me loans goes in the bin.I am getting through this credit crunch okay.

[leonard]

The list is accurate, but I would add one other contributor: China, which flooded the US market w/ cheap money that was gobbled up by the greedy and dumb institutions in the USA while the US government stood by with out a clue of the Chinese intentions. Not unlike the opium infusion to China in the 19th century. "revenge is best served when served cold"

[George]

What I written may not have a good flow of things here, but with limited space and limited patients in people to read a long story, I kind of just threw it out there. Sorry. But I care about Us and Our Country.

First of all, I do not believe it is “ We The People “ Anymore. It is ME the Rich Man who has the final say. By all means, I believe that if you are successful person, then you should be considered in a vote for the positions to CONTROL our money.
(When I say our money, I mean the Treasury) Having faith in this person is very important part of that. (He failed us too) Did you get successful by cheating or hiding or gambling, etc.. Or, did you get that way because you actually know what your doing in an honest way?

These are the things most of us cannot get the complete true facts about and most of the time we are presented with these candidates that we don’t know much about. This is MOSTLY the fault of the Media’ but I am not going to go into that right now. Even though they are the fault of spreading news only on what they believe we need to hear. Or what seems to make it for them as ratings.

People in charge should be responsible for their own actions. We are, so why are they separate from us when it comes to accountability?
One way would be with Computers. They are supposed to be of assistance to us, not Gods or perfect workers. They don’t do anything unless some one gives the instructions. These instructions include watch for: Productivity, Sales, Work Force accountability, etc…

How come these Politicians don’t get their work environment covered like we do? (Thats Another person who failed us)
Maybe it will leave a trail or something? Maybe, it will help them like it is supposed to do when they use it on us in the normal work environment?
Well, most of them are not under that kind of microscope. So, they are FREE to do what they feel they want to do. Call it a crime if you want because there may not be any evidence to go back and prove what was done, right or wrong.

All in all, I see it this way. OUR President (George Bush) DID NOTHING!
He did nothing because I personally think he is Stupid and did not have the credentials to run a country. I also believe he did not have any help that would let him see. Put it together and it's adouble disaster. They all were either too stupid to understand or they did not have the guts to do anything about it. Or maybe, they all knew and were just playing the public because they all know, the public will believe whatever the news tells them to believe.

Common! The story is written here and what else can be said? We have all the greediest politicians that lie, cheat and steal and walk away from their own just to keep the mighty dollar. What else can this be?

NOW, they ask for our money to help them make up for their so called mistakes or losses and so they can keep their jobs, pay themselves bonus and vacations and get-aways and pat themselves on the back again. Well, they fooled us again folks.
I don't understand it all but Lets see how this is in a simple term. When we need to ask for money (Loans), we get our entire lives entered into a computer. Some one with instructions is given the task to scrutinize, summarize and calculate if we are worth giving any money.
THEN, we have to pay the interest.
The Bailouts given, were from our money and given to the failures that put the economy in this negitive decline for everyone!

We pay Taxes for many reasons and they are very good reasons. Most of all, to keep this country afloat. Now the Government makes the decision to Give our money to the people who actually ruined this country with its bad decision-making and greed, with no interest spoken about.
Most of all, talks go on behind closed doors. WHY? It’s Our government, It’s Our Money and it should be American to make Our Vote as to who is worthy and qualifies for the money. WITH INTEREST! Remember, they are making a profit off this money! And, It’s our money they are going to do it with! HA- The interest they will make will be from us again in the end, anyway!

It’s time to straiten out this country. Please, lets start using out brains!
This country is here only because of Faith in each other and true Heroes that stepped out from the silly crowd of followers that cheer for anything that sounds good. Let’s all start doing this together. It’s ours and I know we want to keep it that way. Don’t loose it because we do nothing about it.

[Tallulah]

Greenspan DID call this one in 2003 noting that the housing market was inexplicably still riseing in value.

So the reason why he is the no. culprit is because, as head of the Fed, cooling the overheated housing sector was his JOB once he had identified the anomaly as just that. He could have raised the interest rate, had a word in Dubya's ear about tweaking legislative needs, etc. He sat back and did diddly-squat.

Derivatives were called on many occasions as a great danger and those people need to be on a list of some kind and the question asked about how their warnings were so easily flicked away.

Nouriel Roubini was all but laughed at when he unfurled a prediction in September 06 of how the period ahead was going to go. He is now the guru! What of the others too?

What Greenspan failed to do when head of the Fed amounted to crime.

[MikeS]

It all started with Clinton & the Democrats compounded it in Congress in the Bush years.Freddie & Fannie were just trying to pass on the risk. Brown lost control in the UK of both the budget & regulatory control. The Northen Rock farce would never have been allowed to happen under the B of E control.

[Tom O'Connor]

It couldn't possibly be former (how wonderful it is to apply that adjective) president Bush. He had no authority, ability or power of persuasion. Now Dick Cheney is another story. His obsession with cleaning up his mess in Iraq, going back to his time in Reagan Administration, made a guns and butter economic strategy essential. Keep us all busy shopping at Home Depot and washing the Hummers, Excursions and Suburbans on the weekend and we didn't care what else was happening.

[Babs]

Up to your old tricks, the ONLY bad photo was of Bush. You guys are like bullies in a playground, and you show your idiocy every time you print anything. Barney (the pervert) Frank, should be in jail, Chris Dodd should be in jail, What's his name Raines should be in jail, The entire Democrat party is part of this, and the repubs finally grew a "pair" and said NO NO NO to this social engineering spending extravaganza that they incorrectly dub "stimulus package" we are doomed due to the stupidity of 1/2 of the population of the USA. The teacher's union has effectively created illiterate
serf's, amazing to behold.

[freemort]

Nonsense!! The seeds of the recession were sown by none of the above. You only mentioned those that failed to stop the politically correct liberal financial ignoramuses that spread unimagined risk all over the world like Johnny Appleseed. Carter, Clinton, Freddie Mae and Freddie Mac and a whole host of people in Congress and in the Obama Administration are partially to blame. Not knowing the real history will only mean we don't learn from it. Be journalist for a change!

[Tony and Zeke]

Ayn Rand was spot on, in the "Atlas Shrugged", crony capitalism, and collectivism, leads to stagnation and poverty of many types; THIS SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING IN EVERY SCHOOL in the USA. This exact thing IS happening in the USA that happened in the book. it is scary how exact it is, and soon, anyone productive will say "up yours" we are not working anymore supporting your sorry arses. First: demonize anyone with a work ethic, they become the enemy. Then TAKE over each company one by one, (the big three car companies) when the feds start telling us what cars to drive, what light bulbs to use, what food to eat... it is over. It IS over now. get in line with your hand out the feds will take care of your every need hahahaha yea, right! They cannot even run the capital hill restaurant! and I want them to tell ME, where to live, what to drive what to eat?? the entire bunch needs to be cleaned out of office. There is NO one in the Federal Government that is worth keeping start over ASAP

[Ted]

The Joint Chiefs of Staff HAVE AN ABSOLUTE CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY to stand behind Guantanamo Military Judge James Pohl UNTIL OBAMA OVERCOMES “RES IPSA LOQUITUR” BY SUPPLYING HIS LONG FORM BIRTH CERTIFICATE AND PROVING HIS ELIGIBILITY TO BE PRESIDENT UNDER ARTICLE 2 OF THE US CONSTITUTION.

[Geoff]

There is somebody, or some people, very much missing from this list - those at JP Morgan Chase that 'invented' Credit Default Swaps (CDS's) in the late 1990's.

This was the match that lit the fuse that led to the 'credit crunch' and recessionary explosion.

Sure individuals and organisations along the way failed to stop them having their eventual effect, but the fuse was alight and they were just too slow in stamping it out.

For those who know nothing of these financial instruments, they were the tools that enabled the banks to go 'credit mad' in the first place
- acting like lemmings, once one was using them, others had to follow suit or lose vital market share.

Firstly, CDS's helped banks circumvent their regulatory capital requirements (a purported regulatory loophole).

Secondly, acting like insurance, CDS's protected those making loans against any likelihood of loan default on the part of the borrower (offsetting the lending risk to poor credit rated borrowers for instance)

Thirdly, acting slightly differently to insurance, the claimants didn't have to own the underlying assets or to actually suffer the loss themselves. (allowing the securitisation of the loan book as a financial instrument that could be sold to others - thus freeing the bank to go and do the same again with the next group of borrowers)

Remember AIG's big bailout early on in all this? Well that was because once the house of cards tumbled (let's face it we all knew the good years were going to have to come to an end as some point!), they were the insurer facing the big payouts on all these defaulting CDS's as they were the largest underwriters of them to the banks.

Also, for those conspiracy theorists out there, it was because of these CDS's and the possibility that they were not a 'legal loophole', but actually illegal that the FBI was investigating so many financial organisations in the late 1990's.

The FBI investigation team and all their documents were in the towers when they were destroyed - setting the authorities back in being able to arrest the proliferation of these financial instruments amongst the financial community. This 'co-incidence' between the terrorist attacks and the loss of much of the FBI investigation findings, has fuelled many conspiracy theories about 9/11.

Further, Obama's move since taking up office to restrict lobbyists at the whitehouse I believe is to stop those same vested interest groups, like banks and insurers, from getting public servants to ignore warnings and concerns about such dubious activities in the future. This is to safeguard against any likelihood of a repetition of the circumstances that led to all this happening again in the future.

If you want to know more about CDS's go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_default_swap

[Meat-Eating Invasion Eagle]

I blame the French and Canadians.

[John]

More here.

http://qdeo.com/jm7

[Tigger]

It was peak oil that pricked the bubble.

[Simon]

The private banking system's ability to create new money from nothing by lending it into existence is to blame. Legal forgery, but the world has run out of debtors and their ability to pay it back.

[Baz]

The GFC stable door was nudged off safety by Jimmy Carter who advocated banks lending to prudential non-qualifiers. It was unlocked by Clinton who effectively forced banks to lend to the indigent. It was kicked open by bankers paying commisions on the volume of loans rather than their profitability. The final villains are the credit rating agencies who duped the world into spreading the toxic loans.

[Joergen Tryggestad, Denmark]

Phil Gramm, former Republican Senator from Texas (1985–2002) and later UBS Vice Chairman, certainly should be on this top 10 list

he was a driving force in US Congress of repealing portions of the Glass-Steagall Act, which had regulated the financial services industry and also fought a winning battle against regulation of derivatives trading.

[paul douglas]

If you put chocolate in front of children they will eat until it makes them sick, if not controlled. Same can be said for bankers with money and investments. The days of self control and prudency were long gone. The blame lies clearly with the regulating authorities, who didnt do a bad job, they didnt do ANY job.

[Tony]

You can't forget us - the general public - we didn't help either

[John Swainson]

Why spare Ed Balls - he was the Treasury Minister responsible for the FSA - and ignored hard evidence he was given in 2006 showing that Tiner was not regulating properly and that the non Execs were doing nothing about it. And why spare McKillop - he was the Chairman - and should have been watching Goodwin.

[Jabba the Cat]

Serious omission in not having Barney Frank on your list of suspects.

[Douglas Eden]

Political decisions are ultimately responsible. You ask about the GLOBAL financial crisis, so start with Bill Clinton's decision to force US agencies and lenders to inflate sub-prime lending, sending it out of control and precipitating unrealistic remortgaging and eventual securitization and bank gambling. The Third Way thus bears a big blame, and this brings in Tony Blair and Gordon Brown who launched similar policies in the UK, compounded by heavy public spending on the proceeds from stealthily ripping off the taxpayer. All the others you mention responded to the political climate created by the above, and people like Paulson were left floundering to avoid the grim payback resulting from the financial and political profligacy of their antecedents.

[cooperbry]

Don't forget the US Congress and other government oversight organizations. The fat years were apparently spent watching television. The Madoff debacle is a crime that should have government officials on trial for treason.

The government is broke and broken. It needs to be shrunk by one trillion dollars per year. Reduce debt drastically and let people do business. Law enforcement is the only need of the Nation from government, the rest, leave us alone.

PS - Our new US President thinks it's OK to avoid paying taxes. At least he nominates candidates for top US government positions that avoid paying taxes. If it's OK for them, I guess it must be OK for citizens...

[D.S.]

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”(John Adams).The men in charge of our financial institutions are the best men for the job. they must however, believe in something larger than themselves and their appetites.More laws and gov.intervention will only make this recesion longer.or are we to believe Adams and our founders were way off base,and the united states a pipe dream.

[prs]

It's a lot simpler than that. The responsible are not individuals, but 2 groups of people who have conflicting objectives.

1. the over-leveraged consumers (the most leveraged households in the world are in the UK. The people commonly known as 'chavs' who typically 'withdraw equity from their houses to buy BMW X5's'.
2. Bank shareholders: greedy people who demand increasingly higher profits, pushing the business model over the edge...

[greg]

I understand G Bush tried to put the brakes on the sub-prime market about 6 years ago, but Congress &/or the Senate would not allow it, in large part I bet because of the huge donations (bribes perhaps?) the money lenders were giving the various representatives. I would guess that most elected representatives knew a fair bit about what was going on. Bush didn't do much that was smart, but it appears that he at least tried to reduce a big part of this problem.

[Robert Henry]

Aside from the inevitable demise of the Federal Reserve Board Est. 1913:
1. The repeal of the 1930s Glass-Steagall Act by Wm Clinton and Larry Summers, by
2. Removing (de-regulating) the over-lending restrictions of the banks from appx 10 to 1 to whatever they could get away with which –
3. Forced every other bank on earth to do the same to ‘compete’, that-
4, Unleashed the DotCom bubble first,
5. That was covered up by the Iraq/Afghan invasions, and
6. Furthered by the ongoing mortgage sub-crime debacle –
7. Set-up the ‘perfect storm’ of contraction plus total collapse in derivatives (now exceeding 1.25 quadrillion U$D) and inflation –
that we are currently witnessing.

That de-regulation of the banks (that Greenspan participated in) was – in effect – running live experiments on a live nuclear reactor at Chernobyl.

[Dalton]

Really? Gordon Brown responsible for the recession? Amazing to see over 20% of readers regard our former Chancellor as having such worldwide importance. Delusional or what ? Wonder how many other countries are pointing a juvenile finger at their leader ? Of course it is plain silly to blame one individual, but if I have play this daft newspaer game, there can be no one else apart from Greenspan. The man who thought greed was rational.