Note I'm not exclupating 'Wall St' from blame, merely expressing regret that 'piling on' takes more of a front seat to trying to work out what went wrong, where the opportunities now are, and what lessons can be learnt.
I don't excuse Wall St, but I do think the government is as much, or more to blame. Individuals on Wall St were given a set of rules to work within, some broke them, many stayed within the law. The entire industry cannot be declared bad. It takes an entire economy to mess things up. Everyone is complicit, including the media and even some parts of the general public.
It's the aspect of finding a single scapegoat that I don't find comfortable. Because I feel that hunting down a responsible party and blaming them results in avoiding valuable life lessons. The valuable life lessons here are making sure you don't go along with the crowd, do your own critical thinking and don't for one minute believe the government has your best interests at heart.
I absolutely agree, the problem is determining who is who, the relationship is so incestuous that who is the government and who private enterprise is sometimes vague when it comes to who they are acting for. When it comes to being weight in the balance I think the general public is the least wanting. By no means am I saying lets intact laws and retroactively throw these guys in jail, but the reality of the situation is that given the cozy nature of business and government in this sector nothing is going to happen until the general public starts calling for blood. They are embolden by all they have gotten away with it will not be reduced and no laws will be enacted until there is a fear of the general population. I think the mid-terms helped to stoke that fear. I don't want to get into the politics of the change but a mass flushing of Washington should send a signal. As well I think the general public has paid for their sins, I think the government has paid some with the mid-terms. I don't think the banks have covered their part of the tab yet. Which is why my tone reflects them being the most accountable.