Do you think if the financial services and commerical banking industry were less regulated by the government, this problem would have never happened?
Probably not, but the goverment is not gonna be able to fix the problem either. Every time the goverment has intervened in the buisness world, it has resulted in longer recovery.
Most of our elected officials have no experience in buisness, so they have no basis to make the decisions that will change the problem. (note: I did not say none of them, some of them do actually have a background in buisness.)
Its like asking a fry cook from Mc Donalds to repair a defective nuclear warhead.
He knows what it is, he might even know the theory behind nuclear physics, but he is not trained to fix it. that is the same for our goverment, they know how it works, but they have no clue how to fix it.
The best thing that the goverment could do is halt the handouts of bailout money and let some of the old dinosaurs die out. there is a reason they are and have been failing. Like the presidents campaign slogan said "its time for a change", it might not be the way he meant it, but is what will work.
America does not want what these companies produce, anymore.
The bailout money should go twords helping the common people get through these times, not a failing company (who in many cases is handing out bonuses to their "upper level" employees).
Given time (face it, its gonna take time, no matter what route we take) their will emerge other companies that are selling goods (made in america hopefully) that people do want and can afford/use.
The worst problem with the housing market was the shoddy way loans were handled. If your credit was sub par, then you shouldn't have been able to buy a house. the blame for this one falls on many shoulders, not one partie's or even one bank.
That is my opinion. Don't like it? well no one's will perfectly agree with anyone else's. Thats why we have so many parties in our goverment, to give everyone a voice for their opinion.