> Who is "us" in this case? Not OP, but I'm guessing he's referring to people who rely directly or indirectly on the financial sector. Basically a vast majorit

> Who is "us" in this case? Not OP, but I'm guessing he's referring to people who rely directly or indirectly on the financial sector. Basically a vast majority of the worlds population. > A lot of people lost their homes/savings. Yes, agreed. Unless you are saying things couldn't have been worse for them, but I don't think you are based on the rest of what you wrote... > The primary entities saved were the same ones that caused the crisis in the first place. Was this the fed's decision? > But the in the medium to long term I'm not sure that pulling out all the stops to fix the financial industry's fuckups was the right call. I'd suggest that lack of prosecution and public take-overs were the biggest problem. From my perspective, the fed did what it needed to do within it's power. They couldn't let the major banks go under without systemic consequences. But you're right we should have prosecuted those liable, and failing too-big-to-fail institutions should have been publicly taken over and (arguably) re-privatized after the crisis. We didn't let markets work how they were supposed to.