It was Greenspan’s notorious reluctance to intervene in financial markets, even when leverage was growing dramatically and asset prices seemed to have lost touch with reality, that created the problem. More broadly, Western governments, with their light-touch approach to regulation, allowed markets to career out of control in the early years of this century.
另有三分之一的学生的政治立场正好相反，他们认为美联储前主席艾伦·格林斯潘（Alan Greenspan）是罪魁祸首。格林斯潘以不愿意干预金融市场而闻名，即使在杠杆大幅提高、资产价格看起来早已脱离现实支撑的情况下也是如此，这才是问题的根源。更广泛地说，西方政府的其象征性监管方针导致了市场在本世纪初失控。