It ignores the whole cycle of leveraging and recycling that occured when weaponizing mortgage and asset backed securities into CDOs and insurance risk swaps. Sub-prime mortgages were the gasoline on that fire, they took what was perhaps a cabin burning in the woods and turned it into a 10,000 acre wildfire. With out sub-prime mortgages as an accelerator the who CDO mess burns out slowly and in when it starts burning the market moves away in a controlled manner.

To discount or even disconnect the sub-prime lenders from that fire is disingenuous at best in my opinion.