The origins of the economic crisis: Are the guilty getting off the hook?

We have advocated earlier that those who seek to know the origins of today's economic crisis be familiar with certain tomes: Paul Krugman's book The Return of Depression Economics and subsequent writings, and Simon Johnson's article "The Quiet Coup." Now along comes Bill Moyers' interview of William K. Black, a fraud specialist who was involved in revealing the origins and cover-ups of the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s.

Krugman, Johnson and Black all have impeccable credentials and all are striking a very similar chord: The problem is much more fundamental and dangerous than the financial sector, the government and the media has led us to believe. They say that the perpetrators of this crisis have been engaged in outright deceit and fraud, and that the government under both Bush and Obama have been complicit in covering up the mess.

Krugman, Johnson and Black represent the mainstream critics. On the outer fringes are those who have issued much more dire warnings.

We wish we knew the truth. More than that, we wish we knew last year at this time what we know now. In short, we trusted too well the scions of government and the financial industry to protect us from calamity — and what may turn out to be catastrophe if some prognosticators are correct.

President Obama seems to want to say, "Forget the blame. Let's just try to solve the problem." Krugman, Johnson, Black and others argue that blame must be assessed if we are going to prevent this from happening in the future.