It was not so much predatory lenders as it was imprudent, or deluded, borrowers, who bear the blame for the financial crisis of 2008-2009. And people wanted to borrow so much because the rich had been creaming off a giant share of productivity growth for the previous 30 years.
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LONDON – It is generally agreed that the crisis of 2008-2009 was caused by excessive bank lending, and that the failure to recover adequately from it stems from banks’ refusal to lend, owing to their “broken” balance sheets.