A Thought Crossed His Mind:

Icelandic People Are Inbred. And They Have A Sense Of Themselves As Genetically Special, And A History Of Risk-taking Because They Make Their Living On The High Seas Fishing. Assets Generally Rose In Value During This Period, And So It Looked Like They Actually Knew What They Were Doing.

The Germans Made Just About Every Bad Investment You Could Have Made In The Last 10 Years. They Invested In Icelandic Banks. They Invested In Greek Government Bonds. They Were Heavy Into Irish Banks, Big Into Irish Banks, And They Bought U.s. Subprime Mortgage Bonds.

Time And Space Are Absolute. Diseases Are Evil Spirits That Inhabit The Body. Parallel Lines Never Meet. The Earth Is The Center Of The Universe. Children Are Miniature Adults. At One Time In History Each Of These Beliefs Was Generally Held To Be True. Each, However, Gave Way To Different Ideas And Even Different World Views.

Why Isn't Someone Smarter Than Us Doing This?

The Big Wall Street Firms, Seemingly So Shrewd And Self-interested, Had Somehow Become The Dumb Money. The People Who Ran Them Did Not Understand Their Own Businesses, And Their Regulators Obviously Knew Even Less.