The big problem with Mark Stevenson's argument is that bad loans given out by banks and accepted by people who were not able to repay them did not cause the financial crisis. It was the fact that Wall Street began to collect and sell this bad debt as if it were a legitimate financial product. So it's disingenuous to say that delinquent borrowers are as culpable as the banks were in creating this mess.

I was waiting for the Merc to write something about this and I'm glad you finally did. Good job, NG.