Late to the game, but I have to call out your shameless cherry picking. That elipsis in your wikipedia quote skips: "which triggered a stock market crash and bank runs in several countries." I mean, dude...
Yes, obviously, the subprime crisis was long in the making and has deep root causes. But the bank runs of 2008 and the frozen global financial system were 100% preventable, as they were a confidence shock (not a fundamentals thing) stemming from the sudden uncertainty due to Lehman.
A little assistance from the Bush administration in 2008 would have very plausibly produced a much softer landing and required a lot fewer bailouts overall. This really isn't controversial.
"Let them fail" is almost always the worst thing to do.
Yes, obviously, the subprime crisis was long in the making and has deep root causes. But the bank runs of 2008 and the frozen global financial system were 100% preventable, as they were a confidence shock (not a fundamentals thing) stemming from the sudden uncertainty due to Lehman.
A little assistance from the Bush administration in 2008 would have very plausibly produced a much softer landing and required a lot fewer bailouts overall. This really isn't controversial.
"Let them fail" is almost always the worst thing to do.