Read an article, browse a bookstore, watch the tube, chances are you will find a piece of media pinning blame on a singular cause. The circumstances of a crisis will always be different but the human need to identify a guilty party always remains same. In the past decade there has been plenty of travesties, plenty of blame.
Justice is a concept worthy of continued human support but we must also recognize when the need for justice turns ugly. Justice is most easily applied to cases involving single individuals or singular groups. An example would be Bernie Madoff when he defrauded thousands of people out of billions of dollars. The crime was huge but the cause could be traced back to one man, one cause.
The modern age is full of complex systems, the stock market, government, and the economy. When the recession hit, people wanted justice, somebody they could blame for the pain they felt. In addition, human nature has a need to know what happened, a passion for why. The problem with complex systems is that they are made up of millions of people with no singular leader, no one person that holds all of the cards.
There have been plenty of opinions on what caused the recession. It was Bush's fault, the Democrat's fault, Wall Street's fault, or the home owners' fault. However, there is only a handful of people that understand, that realize the limits of singular cause and accept the fact complex systems - are complex.
So what is my point? Yeah Wall Street Bankers were idiots, home owners were idiots, Bush was an idiot, and so is every person that believes one group of people are to blame. When herd mentality takes over there has never been a societal system that can stop the stamped. The bull market of the 1990's and 2000's was a drunken good time for the United States and now the hangover wont go away.
The only way that the economy will improve is to learn the lessons we can, put the past behind us, and find innovative ways to allow business to do business more freely.
Until things change, brace for more pain and stress.