[mrmeyer]

"But the crash of 2008 was primarily a failure of the private sector. US (and other) regulators should be faulted for failing to regulate. Without a bail-out, the financial system would have remained paralysed, making the subsequent recession much deeper and longer."

BARF.

[VRWCmember]

"But the crash of 2008 was primarily a failure of the private sector. US (and other) regulators should be faulted for failing to regulate.

what a load of crap! the financial sector is heavily regulated, and the sub-prime mortgage fiasco was primarily driven by the most heavily regulated part of the financial sector and by government intereference via Freddie, Fannie, and their incestuous government agencies. The LEAST regulated portions of the financial sector were the only parts of the financial sector that didn't crash. It was not a failure of an unregulated private sector, but rather a massive failure of government interference causing more problems than it solved.