I said "our greed." Corporations spent the last almost thirty years seeking "economies" and "synergies" through outsourcing and layoffs and by paying the workers who were left a small fraction of what they paid executive "talent." Collectively, the serfs (working stiffs) took on a consumerist mindset in which they never saved an acorn their lords (corporate masters) tossed them. For many of us among the more affluent, it was all about the here and the now: the bigger SUV; the house in the burbs with the hot tub and the wet bar that were the envy of Mom and Dad; the cruises to Mexico and the Caribbean--all paid for with borrowed money. But no problem--saving was for chumps; they'd make it all up in the stock market or by selling their homes to greater fools or, as a last resort, by taking out a HELOC against their home equity.
Investment banks weren't satisfied with the incomes they made helping companies raise capital by selling stocks and bonds. They set up M&A departments so they could advise the "talent" on the best way to achieve those "synergies" and "efficiencies," usually by advising the "talent" to borrow huge sums of money from the few chumps who actually dared to use banks as a place to save money. The "talent" would pay for the "deal" later by selling off pieces in fits and starts. If some people had to lose their jobs during the adjustment process, well, too bad; that's just the way the Darwinian cookie crumbled. The investment bankers decided they could make even more money by creating and selling esoteric derivatives--LEAPS and swaps and forwards and backwards and upside downs--that even they didn't properly understand. They set up proprietary trading departments to buy and sell securities at speeds and volumes that would make a craps player at Caesars wince. Then the commercial and retail banks saw the money being made and decided they wanted in on the action, so they lobbied Congress to get rid of Glass-Steagall.
Unfortunately, things didn't quite work out the way people expected. Home prices cratered, real incomes stagnated, and, while the executive "talent" took a bigger chunk of the pie, they couldn't make the S&P 500 budge in ten years. So much to adding to shareholder value. Meanwhile, the debt hangover has left us with 54 trillion reasons why demand will be flat and the word "stock" will be a dirty word for years to come.
This unemployment thing goes way beyond labels like "conservative" or "liberal." We're all to blame in one way or another.
