ABSTRACT
Was the collapse of housing markets due to individual action? Of course no one is exactly forced to borrow money, even if it was cheap and offered to us on a plate, nor was it the borrowers who created the derivatives or securitised their loans and sold them on to others. It was not they who kept interest rates low and increased the supply of cheap credit. It was not individuals who argued it was easier to clear up a bubble after it had burst rather than deflate one.
