Much has been written about the origins and contagious processes that led to the subprime crisis of 2007 first and to the financial crisis thereafter that characterize financial markets ever since. This retrospective is designed to illustrate that it has been human action in the very entrepreneurial or managerial sense that has caused the financial crisis to emanate and spread. From this viewpoint, responsible actors can be identified not only within financial intermediaries, but as bureaucratic and political entrepreneurs within public institutions as well.