My info is direct from the source, not journalists trying to sell stories. Perhaps you should check your sources.
Best part of PBS show: When Greenspan say yes we could have used a little regulation in our Capitalist economy.
A massive "bubble" along many fronts played a huge role. That is about people and human behavior. Regulations don't stop bubbles.
Regulation affects the way assets can be leveraged and the amount of capital required to be held on balance sheets. Regulation can also affect how systemic the effects of a collapse are. Over-leveraging and securitization were two critical ingredients that caused this bubble to inflate wildly and affect parties that were not participating in speculation. Part of the reason we have a government is to provide a means to control something ideologues never seem to think exist: negative externalities. It may do so consistently, but to pretend that all this was due to a an asset bubble is laughable.
"All" was your word, but it is laughable that you think regulation can stop human behavior. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1fuDDqU6n4o&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1fuDDqU6n4o&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
And the strawman that regulation could stop human behavior was yours. I'll make it easier for you: regulation can affect capital cushions, leverage, and systemic risk to some extent.