...but as I understand the data, it was an after thought. I think this mess would have happened, even without sub-primes. It wouldn't have been quite as bad without it, but it still would have been a fucking mess.

In all fairness, I think Greenspan deserves as much blame as anyone, for keeping interest rates low when it became clear that our debt load wasn't sustainable.

And it didn't help that our economy had been reduced to the point where house flipping was the best get-rich-quick scam going, instead of an economy that was creating real value.