The opining classes can turn almost any bad news into an excuse for more meetings in beautiful settings like Bard College. Some of the talk has been devoted to the blame game. Was the crisis (or rather the rolling set of interrelated crises) home-grown, that is, brought on by ill-conceived investment, over-leveraged companies, lax banking supervision and crony capitalism in the borrowing countries?
Was it the greed, inattention, or herd instinct of the lenders? Or was it the inherent instability of international capital flows? Did the IMF step in just in time to avert total meltdown or did it fail to provide early enough warning? Did the conditions imposed on borrowers help restore investor confidence or further undermine it?