The regulators should bear part of the blame. And allow me to append this to the end of your reply.

Seeing the high-flying house price, Wall Street was greed and stupid enough to originate a loan to anybody who wanted a house. Bad credit? No problem. No income? No problem. What made things much much worse was the financial derivatives they made out of these sub-prime mortgages, the complex financial instruments that economic experts now blame for spreading the housing collapse. I suppose they were not talking about all derivatives.

I think Wall Street is the symbol of American capitalism and free market. So they love deregulation and hate government interference. When things went well, shareholders and executives got huge benefits. When things turned south, you guys blame the government and let the taxpayers bear the burden. Very convenient, isn't it? What enraged me is they took our tax dollars and we have to keep quiet when news spread that some of these funds went to somebody's pockets as so-called bonus. Enough is enough. But there is not much I can do. I just sent email to the White House and my Senators/Rep to let them know that some people was not very happy. If these Washington insider heard enough of that, they may begin to worry about their reelection now.