OK, had a chance to watch the start of the video again to remind me of the context, and thought of some other ways to look at it.

1. You could, if you were particularly heartless, look at it as the individual failures of the people who borrowed money they had no hope of repaying. That I consider this a rather unfair way of looking at it is unlikely to stop the usual suspects from actually voicing this opinion.

2. You could look at it as a failure of risk management. Each individual player understood that there were risks involved, but each thought that passing the risk along to the next person would avoid the risk being their own! Nobody understood that they were creating a risk to the entire system.

3. You could also look at it as a failure of regulation. I am quite astounded that, amidst the sea of fraudulent activity by banks and their agents, there were no charges laid against anybody for the activities that brought about the GFC. The regulations also, in some cases, prevented banks from taking sensible steps to avoid default. Once the loans were bundled together, rules 'protecting' investors by preventing discounting were actually what caused the investors to lose their shirts.

4. You could look at it as a failure of business: In many cases, the folks who had been encouraged to take out these dodgy loans were actually going along just fine until the banks increased the interest rates. There was, therefore, a huge missed opportunity for someone to buy these loans in default at a discount, and let the homeowners keep paying the introductory rates that they quite clearly had been managing quite well.

I've completely forgotten the context of my comment... I'll have to get back to you on this.

I remember that it wasn't exactly the line the video took.

My two are total opposites. One is athletic and lithe ...the other, a sweet big bull in a china shop. I feel for my downstairs neighbors on many occasions.

Hope you feel better soon.

Me too ... except there's three [counting me]

A bright elusive butterfly of love? Just guessin'

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ! ! ! ! !

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Just yesterday in a different thread I asked people to ignore the trolls, but had no luck. Maybe if we can get enough people repeating this . . .

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Happy anniversary! Today marks year number 7 since you first became a Sifter and the community is better for having you. Thanks for your contributions!

I'd never heard it either! Cream is one of my all time favorite bands and this is a sparkling hidden gem from a mind blowing era. Thank you for commenting.

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No my friend, they are still alive http://videosift.com/video/Kraftwerk-Latitude-Festival-July-20-2013

Thanks, that helped. I got annoyed and tried to revert it when they appeared, but I didn't happen to look there. At the time I did a google search and came up empty, so I tried Settings -> Settings, but not Configure Inbox. So, maybe it was idiot-proof, but not for a big enough idiot like me.

In any case, that sorted me out.