for a little bit of clarification, i don't think that everyone involved in the "scandal" is inherently 100% greedy or selfish. there are people like that, and unfortunately they come out of the woodwork routinely, but i'm pretty sure the crisis is also perpetuated by naivite and ignorance (often cultivated ignorance). i think that there is a well-established pattern of human behavior in which people who are not master architects of destruction, but rather just trying to get ahead a bit, take advantage of loopholes, not percieving their transgression as a big deal. then others see their opening, and a snowball effect is created. Clearly, the people trading these abstractions probably were just doing as they were trained--I can't imagine that any of them actually sat back and analyzed the fact that they were bartering air, and then considered the morality of that.

My point is that there was no incentive to do so. No rules for someone to prevent it from happening in the first place, and no rules for anyone to have a framework for identifying error. But plenty of incentive to ensure one's own financial security. And then everyone involved becomes complicit.

Though, by this point, it is pretty obvious that some people did not just naively take advantage of a regulation-free environment, but rather twisted and bent the facts to dip dangerously near criminal activity. Which takes a special kind of heart.