Yes, it's bad populism to talk about crimes and then never bother to explain them.
There's nuance in explaining systematic failure, but not one that most people couldn't grasp if well written in a few paragraphs.
A lot of 'small bad decisions' at the loan level encouraged by an aggressive culture, a failure in ratings, and CEO's to mild to look too intently into the VP Retail Banking's mortgage profits ... and the whole thing can go sideways.
But it'd be nice if the experts gave us more detail when the talked about it.
When you're talking about something as vast as the Great Financial Crisis that led to a monetary policy with no historical precedent (still in effect btw), you simply cannot summarize it in an article.
It is simply Too Big To Describe, to paraphrase the favorite mantra of the era.
I've noted certain articles and books in another comment above. Those should help get up to speeed.
There's nuance in explaining systematic failure, but not one that most people couldn't grasp if well written in a few paragraphs.
A lot of 'small bad decisions' at the loan level encouraged by an aggressive culture, a failure in ratings, and CEO's to mild to look too intently into the VP Retail Banking's mortgage profits ... and the whole thing can go sideways.
But it'd be nice if the experts gave us more detail when the talked about it.