True, but it's sure fishy that AIG underwrote so much. Where were they analyzing the risks? The risks were so great. We're not talking about "risks" of lower profits, or a modest loss, the whole company went down! How could they be so wrong? And as for Goldman, well the idea of "buyer beware" and "personal responsibility" just don't cut it. Here's an example, Goldman sold some currency swaps to Greece. Did Greece knew exactly what it was getting itself into? Hell yes. The leaders knew they were hiding the debt and they knew it would eventually blow up in everyone's faces. But they didn't care, they were lining their own pockets, call it greed, agency costs, whatever. When Goldman sold FAULTY CDOs, it aggressively went after those who also didn't care about the blowout risks, because in the meantime they were getting really rich. Guys like those working at Bear Sterns and their subprime hedge fund, or lazy pension fund managers. They DIDNT CARE if they bought bad stuff, they were getting paid to do it.