Unfortunately, the people who precipitated our economic crisis are still running the show! These are the clowns who are respectfully called Congressmen and Senators.
These clowns are quick to criticize & fire the bit-players (whose crimes were that they acted on incentives set up by politicians) e.g. the 'greedy' bankers. Note: the bankers and Wall Street types are culpable too, but they could not create the rules and incentives that encouraged bad behavior without the connivance of lawmakers. Bankers merely engaged in the bad behavior that lawmakers in Congress encouraged; then, they asked for more encouragement, and greased the way with political campaign contributions, lobbyist fees and other perks. All of them -- Wall Street bankers AND the politicans -- benefited while the party lasted. So did many others who lived beyond their means. But taxpayers are now paying for all this.
The main culprits who caused the problems are still in Congress. Most of them (e.g. Barney Frank) are still around, and may be seen on TV, giving their sage advice on how to get taxpayers to pay for all this. Those that were defeated during the 2008 elections, have been replaced by their ideological twins.
The US Congress still has the same old clowns who:
* kept interest rates artificially low - GWB's administration did this, and BO's administration is following their lead
* increased Govt spending - both Republicans and Democrats are guilty of this, with the Democrats in a slight lead(!)
* encouraged unlimited borrowing - both sides want us to be fat, dumb and happy. But, once again the Democrats have a slight lead(!)
The only difference (in economic terms) between Democrats and Republicans is that the latter claim to be in favor of lower taxes, which, they say promotes growth, leading to higher tax revenues. Those higher tax revenues can be spent on vote-buying gimmicks such as Presciptions for Medicare Recipients. So, even the Republican's support for lower taxes is not based on shrinking the Government. It is merely their vehicle for paying for Government bloat. I guess we should be happy with the prospect that there is a desire for economic growth in this strategy!
The reality is that Republicans cannot win elections when the other side is promising all kinds of Govt giveaways (Universal Health Care, Affordable Housing, Free Education, ..) as long as the electorate is dumb enough to believe that all these goodies can be obtained for free! So, we are doomed to a Leftward slide towards Socialism.
Could it be that we (the electorate) are the clowns? Perhaps folks should stop using the phrase "the American Public" with the tone of (phony) hushed reverence? After all, we are the victims .. but we only get the leaders that we deserve.