It's interesting that at 20mins into the first part, rep Byron Dorgan stands up in front of his colleagues and says exactly what's wrong, and exactly what's coming, in 1999.

And other folks like Brooksly Borne (sp?) also were pushing Congress to head off the problems that ended up whacking us.

So it's not like it wasn't known what was wrong. But Greenspan and others argued against doing anything, and actively pushed legislation to get rid of oversight on derivatives.