InAfter the Music Stopped, Blinder describes seven "Villains", each of which contributed to causing the financial crisis of 2008.

1) Describe and explain two of causes of the financial crisis. (Each one of these causes is complex in its own right, and in a short essay it is difficult or impossible to adequately describe all the relevant factors in detail. Try to give general descriptions and explanations that clarify key practices, events, institutions, decisions and/or policies and how the causes worked.)

• Your explanations should demonstrate sound, basic knowledge of key concepts studied in the course and descriptions of events, decisions, institutions and practices should be accurate.
• Your explanations should identify and describe key institutions, decisions, events, and provide some account of "what-caused-what". For example, if you choose to about rating agencies, you should address questions like these: What were these agencies? What did they do? How did their policies, decisions and actions (or lack thereof) help cause the crisis? Or, if you select the housing bubble, you should address questions like these: What happened during the housing bubble? How did the practices (and again be selective in describing which practices were most essential to causing the crisis) help cause the crisis? What were some of the key cause-effect relationships connecting these practices during the housing bubble to the meltdown of the financial system as a whole?

2) In your opinion, which of these two causes contributed the most to causing the crisis. Explain why you hold this opinion citing a few facts.