Capitalism is great when played by the rules. Maybe the very nature of the beast makes one forget the rules. Yes capitalism is great, your article is not. I read between the lines an accusation against the many that have been given their rightful financial opportunity since the reforms you noted. In truth, the accusation is foundless. The financiers, the congress, Alan Greenspan, Thien, all created this mess. Not the consumers. In fact, the history of why Democrat's pushed for the changes and reforms is too long and too murky to recite here but you know it. With thoughtful implementation, those reforms and changes might have been successful. We'll never know because the law of extremes kicked in. The pendulum swung. I believe accepting this bail out without collateral sucks for the majority of American's. Some of the greatest financial minds not in politics have all spoken against it, but who listens to them? With the right checks and balances, we might have had a fair and profitable middle ground.

Bill Clinton and his admiminstration the 'Tax & Spend' and their greed, got America into this Wall Street mess. Now Barack Obama, along with his 'Tax & Spend' buddies, are trying to dig the final grave for Americans. Chicago is millions behind due to Obama! He's looking to Taxpayers to 'fix' his State along with Washington. This is why he insists on the 'debates' and his 'hyped up' cover ups! As usual, he and others like him, think they can cover up a lot of wrong doings by telling the America people 'everything's going to be alright'!
Guess what, America, you'd better wake up and smell the coffee, while you can afford to buy it!
The No. 1 Priority should be 'Fair Tax'. Which should include 'PROPERTY TAXES', as well as 'INCOME TAXES'. This is the only way to end the 'Tax & Spend' politicians on local, state, and federal levels and stop the mess they've gotten America into!

Taxpayers ARE NOT GOING TO BAIL out Wall Street, AIG, Fannie Mae nor Freddie Mac? Taxpayers are fed up and are saying, it's time to 'shut down and hunt down' the CEO's, the politicians who backed such schemes, and the big money hounds of the insurance industry, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and take all the money back
from them, as they, most certainly, didn't earn it and they're absolutely responsible for the bankruptcy of these organizations and the selling of American jobs to foreign countries, not the Taxpayers! If these 'so-called pillows of the community' don't pay off this $700 billion, plus the trillions of dollars they've borrowed from foreign countries and pay all monies for other bad ideas they've created, (and make sure all the Swiss and Foreign Bank Accounts they've acquired are found), then there's bigger reasons for Taxpayers to investigate what's really going on.
Everyone, including politicians, are going to have to give back. This means 'Your time is limited to one (1) month a year', and this, of course, means a maximum salary of $12,000.00 yearly. No more freebies, no raises, and extras for anything, since these 'positions' were supposed to be 'public servants', instead of a lifetime of taking Taxpayers money you haven't earned. Come to think of it, politicians never served the Taxpayers only themselves!
THIS IS NOW A PROVEN FACT, ISN'T IT!

The problem did not occur in 1977 the problem was Fannie Mae and Freedy Mac's lack of fiscal prudence. There is a board of diretors at these institutiions that is supposed to provide oversight and they did not. Even after warnings they continued to take on high risk loans with the assumption that home prices would forever escalate. If these institutions were that important to the economy that a federally funded bailout is required then there should have been more regulation not less.