This essay makes some good points, but ultimately it fails to address the titular 'real cause', due in part to an over-reliance on the personal experience of the author. In this last respect it is typical of the genre; Michael Lewis, for example, tends to focus on miscalculation of risk, and particularly on the defects of the Black-Scholes model for pricing options---based in large part on his experience as a Big Swinging Dick at Salomon Brothers in the '80s.

Based on my reading of a bunch of these economic diagnoses, I'd like to suggest a two-part litmus test for addressing the 'real cause' of the crisis:

  (a) Explain the system of central banks and fractional reserve banking.

  (b) Connect (a) to the present crisis.

I've become convinced that any explanation that falls short of this test invariably misses the forest for the trees.