I know more than enough about Basle 2... it has only been gradually phased in over the past 1-2 years and whilst it didn't help it is not the cause.... the cause is just too much debt that has built up over years that people are now struggling to repay.
Basle 2 is just a small (very small) part of the puzzle... it is not all the fault of the "evil banks"... try everyone who borrowed and defaulted on a debt.... greed wasn't just bankers.... all the buy-to-let investors... anyone who bought a car and funded it wuth debt... everyone who got 80k in debt funding an ATPL and then didn't pay it back..... Basle 2 is irrelevent in the big picture as the debt mountain was largely built before it was introduced
Blame greed in its many different forms.