How about the idea that Wall Street and Mainstreet behaved equally wrong.  Wall Street execs knew there were regulators.  If the regulators were not doing their job then Wall St was assuming, their behavior was not totally wrong.  The profits might be a bit ill gotten, but if no one is saying no, then take advantage of the situation, and make money while it’s possible. 
Similarly, many on main street (who were not that savy) knew that they couldn’t afford houses that they wanted to buy but were enticed to buy because the banks didn’t say no and they thought their income would eventually rise to the point where the house would be affordable.  The folks on Main Street thought, take advantage of the option while it’s available.
The problem was with the regulators and the systems that were set up that encouraged more profits and more houses sold regardless of whether it was prudent.  Who and what developed and permitted these systems and regulatory behaviors?  The main culprit in all of it is the national mindset that we can get a quick and easy buck, no matter if it sounds too good to be true.  We have stopped taking responsibility for our own actions and have avoided limits to our behavior.  Bigger is not always better, “Plastics” is not the future, boring banking behavior may not be sexy but it is sustainable.
Stop pointing fingers at others and look for ways that you contributed to the mindset, make changes in your own community, and keep a wary eye out for scams and overly risky behavior in our financial systems.

He’s done his penance… now put him to work, dammit!

Bullshit - Wall Street didn’t fail this nation. The greed-heads of Wall Street took advantage, as any good capitalist would have, of the fact that our goverment had no intention of performing its role in overseeing how Wall St., the banks and the Insurance giant AIG conducted their buisness. There were agencies a part of this goverment whose only reason to exist was to protect the american people from exactly what took place. Under this last administration there were no competant individuals in charge, they had been replaced by loyal bushites told to look the other way at the least or to help in the graft. Every agency during the Bush / Cheney regiem was turned into an example of incompetance and corruption. Unfortunately they had plenty of help from both sides of the isle all the way. Republican Phil Graham removed the last of the obstacles that were still in place in the form of regulation and Bill Clinton signed the bill. Our current VP signed onto the change in credit card rules favoring the banks at the expense of the people. But lets quit blaming those evil money changers of Wall St alone…they did was was completely understandable given a goverment that didn’t understand its role in protecting the consumers anymore. We elect representitives to speak for us all, but we don’t bother to tell them how we want them to vote. But the lobbyists for those firms, they certainly make their needs known.