Faulty regulation also worsened the European sovereign debt crisis, assigning government bonds virtually zero risk.
Mr. Dodd has drawn fire after it was disclosed that Countrywide Financial, a lender heavily involved in the subprime mortgage crisis, assigned him to a V.I.P. program in 2003, even as he had responsibility for oversight of the banking industry as a member of the Senate Banking Committee.
Teams that fail do so in part because they are dealing with crisis, assigning blame and protecting their turf.
Studies of the financial crisis do assign a significant measure of responsibility to the government, but mostly for its failure to regulate these lenders.
Moody's and S.& P. have been accused of feeding the crisis by assigning high ratings for too long, and then downgrading them too quickly.
PENSION CRISIS ROOTS Assigning blame for the nearly $100 billion unfunded pension liability has been another major point of contention in the pension reform debate.
The three leading ratings firms -- Moody's, Fitch and Standard & Poor's -- have been criticized for fueling the financial crisis by assigning and maintaining high ratings on mortgage-backed securities, even as concerns about the health of the U.S. home market grew.
Try to avoid any potential crises by assigning a day planner, or communicating effectively with your wedding planner.
The Obama administration is ramping up its response to west Africa's Ebola crisis, preparing to assign 3,000 US military personnel to the afflicted region to supply medical and logistical support to overwhelmed local healthcare systems and to boost the number of beds needed to isolate and treat victims of the epidemic.
In "Connections," a 15-lesson curriculum used in several hundred schools, mostly in California, students choose a partner for a pretend marriage, and meet for seven days to divide household duties, plan a wedding, make career choices, create a budget, plan a family vacation and face a randomly assigned crisis.
