Establishment commentators tend to blame every financial crisis on the "bad luck" of a whole host of factors coming together to create a "perfect storm." What they "forget" is that the incentives of the modern system always drive the elites themselves to destabilize their own system. Not sometimes. Not most of the time. Always.
They will say that the 2007-8 crisis was a combination of the US banking deregulation of the 90s, the US political agenda of moving poor people into home ownership, the poor financial oversight by the George W. Bush administration, the 'global savings glut,' the existence of a shadow banking system in the US, the loose monetary policy in the aftermath of the dot com bust, etc. etc. All true. What they forget to mention is that, if it were not these factors, there would be others (stock buybacks anyone?) If it hadn't happened in 2007-8, it would have been later.
I'm convinced that buybacks will be the reason behind the next crisis. They're pumping themselves full of air and it will eventually collapse when the massive overvaluation of companies cannot keep up with the sales or whatever they profit from. Just look at what happened with Facebook last week when they got hit with the cold reality that no one likes their shitty algo-driven newsfeed anymore and have started flocking elsewhere. One by one these giants are going to take mighty blows, and the fabricated value will come rushing out of the balloons they call their companies.
The reason why these elites destabilize their own systems is because they're so far away from the results of their actions they don't realize it until it's too late. The cushion is too big.