Hell is empty and all the devils are here Bethany McLean, the former Fortune journalist who exposed Enron's corrupt business practices, talks to Financial News about bankers, 'how bright people can do some pretty stupid things' and her new book on the hidden history of the financial crisis. The book, by authors Joe Nocera and Bethany McLean, who also co-wrote The Smartest Guys in the Room, is a painstaking exploration of the events that led up to the downturn and the individuals involved. | Financial News met up with McLean, now a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, and asked who she believed was most to blame for the financial crisis and whether any lessons were learnt from Enron. --- FN: Your book starts around 30 years ago with Lewis Ranieri and covers each of the main institutions and firms involved in the financial crisis from the regulators to the politicians. Do you think everyone was equally to blame? BM: I think it's really hard to apportion blame. But I if I had to I would say: politicians and regulators, because it was their job to protect people and protect the system and they failed. Bankers were doing what bankers do; mortgage originators were doing what mortgage originators do. I guess the other group is the rating agencies and that's because they too had an explicit job. It wasn't to make investment banks happy, it wasn't to grow their bottom lines, it was to rate bonds and they failed abysmally. And