But, with a lot less hindsight, they look no sillier than many of the loans extended, underwritten, securitized, sold and bought by what were supposedly the best minds on Wall Street--undocumented mortgages, mortgages with interest but no principal payments, those for more than the value of properties and those to people with toxic credit ratings.
Their ability to borrow so much has a lot to do with lenders' astonishingly generous attitudes to companies with apparently over-extended balance sheets.