I believe if anyone from the government had the audacity to suggest such a thing, millions of people in a murderous rage would descend on Washington DC, declare open season on hypocrites and open freaking fire...
(I just want to sell tickets to the event.)
I brought this up, though it may have been on a purple board thread. The funny thing is you bring up the Great Depression (very apropos). After the GD, congress instituted regulations to prevent it from happenning again, regulations which McCain has for years been working away at getting rid of. Slowly but surely they did, and in typical laisez faire style, this was abused by the criminally and stupidly greedy to make a "quick buck" with no foresight into (or more likely, no concern for) the future, even when three years ago, it was apparent to anyone that it was creating an economic Ponzi scheme that was unsustainable. We can't go blaming this on "Them", whomever "them" may be. It is due to us; we, you, me, and the rest of everybody. It is an issue of culture in this country. It's due to our values. It's due to our "I'm getting mine, screw you" attitude. It's the culture of competetiveness and "keeping up with the Jonses". We may want to blame the anks for writing irresponsible loans, but what about all the people who irresponsibly (and more than occassionally, fraudulantly) applied for loans? How many people 4 years ago when they were refi-ing and pulling out all that increadible equity they "earned" in the prior 2 years considered, "Damn, real estate value increases like this don't last and will swing back down in a year or so?" Anyone old enough to own a home has seen this cycle before at least a couple of times in their life. So, when we go looking for whom to place the blame upon, we collectively need look no further than the mirror.
Personal Responsibility, that is what we lack, and it's not just this country, it's us as a species.
People like to spout off about smaller government and less regulation, people, I've gotta say it in all honesty, collectively, we are too stupid to make that work.