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Part of the blame certainly lies with the CEOs, but they are being blamed more than they should. A big part of the problem was systemic risk in the way mortgage-backed securities were being handled. The part of the blame that does lie on the CEOs is because of the structure of the compensation in the financial industry. Annual bonuses were based on short term gains which are most easily acheived by taking on long term risk. But short term gains excite people and that's why the bonuses were being awarded for it, just they were getting those short term gains without looking to the long-term and cyclical markets, like what effect a housing downturn (which was obviously coming at some point, just a matter of time) would have if they hadn't moved mortgage-backed securities out of the portfolio before it came.
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"I put my mama on her, she threw her in the air. My mama said son, that's a mother buckin' mare."
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