Interesting piece in Der Spiegel, of all places. Interesting comment on both economics, and human nature, which can make even correct intelligence utterly useless absent any will to act. From "Global Banking Economist Warned of Coming Crisis"

"White, a Canadian, worked for various central banks for 39 years, most recently serving as chief economist for the central bank for all central bankers, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), headquartered in Basel, Switzerland.... Since the economy went up in flames, the wiry retiree has been jetting around the globe... someone, finally, is listening to him.... Greenspan, who was reverentially known as "The Maestro," was celebrated as the greatest central banker of all time -- until the US real estate bubble burst and the crash began. Before then, no one in the world of central banks would have dared to openly criticize Greenspan's successful policy of cheap money. No one except White, that is.

....The analysis department at the BIS has a collection of data from every bank around the globe, considered the most impressive in the world. It enabled the economists working in this nerve center of high finance to look on, practically in real time, as a poisonous concoction began to brew in the international financial system.

White and his team of experts observed the real estate bubble developing in the United States. They criticized the increasingly impenetrable securitization business, vehemently pointed out the perils of risky loans and provided evidence of the lack of credibility of the rating agencies. In their view, the reason for the lack of restraint in the financial markets was that there was simply too much cheap money available on the market.... In the restrained world of central bankers, it would have been difficult for White to express himself more clearly.... He, the chief economist at the central bank for central banks, predicted the disaster, and yet not even his own clientele was willing to believe him."