HOW WE GOT INTO THIS MESS — By Frederic L. Milliken

The first rescue package of $700 billion passed by the Bush Administration was supposed to buy back this bad paper. Instead the government … gave half of it to banks with no strings attached instead of designating it for security redemption. The banks did not use the money to redeem the bad paper certificates…

Starts out off-track pointing at speculation, but gets it pretty much right overall. It’s really worth the read.

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