Exactly. Charles Kindlebergers book [Manias,
Panics and Crashes] lays it all out. In fact,
Kindleberger and Minsky collaborated a lot.
I didnt know that.
All you have to do is look through the annals of
history, as Kindleberger did, to realize what the
nature of the beast is, which is why Im such a
strong proponent of regulators, broadly speaking,
trying to have counter-cyclical regulatory
responses. But clearly that has not been the M.O.
in recent years. In fact, during the whole
development of the originate-to-distribute business
model for mortgages and the creation of all the
securitizations and the shadow banks and conduits,
etc. (particularly CDS and synthetic CDOs), you had
a great deal of cheerleading by the regulatory
authorities. Thats my criticism.