The system was not overwhelmed by innovation it was overwhelmed by negligence

Sir I bet that Clive Crook does not know of anyone who knows of anyone who knows of anyone that has lost a single dollar giving a subprime mortgage on too generous or outright stupid terms to anyone who classifies as belonging to a subprime sector.

But I do bet that Clive Crook knows of many persons or institutions that have lost fortunes investing in securities collateralized with mortgages just because these securities were rated AAA by one, two or even three of the three credit rating agencies that everyone, including the financial regulators uses.

In this respect unless Clive Crook classifies a mortgage given on stupid terms as an innovation he is absolutely wrong about “A system overwhelmed by innovation”, October 13. The system was overwhelmed by the sheer negligence of those sentries that the regulators appointed and empowered, the credit rating agencies, and the negligence of the regulators and the market participants who thereafter went to sleep in the belief they no were safe.