This will all lead to a new financial meltdown. The major banks, all those "too big to fail" institutions who were saved by TARP and who were allowed to merge and swallow failing banks such as Wachovia, will teeter and fall. This means no new mortgage payments coming in (why keep paying your loan if the bank has no standing to foreclose?), no repossessions of properties for resale canceling all that cash flow, lawsuits left and right from those defrauded and the new owners forced onto the streets, penalties from angry judges seeking to impose penalties and on and on... This could make the last meltdown seem pale by comparison. It is all the result of Wall Street greed and the buying off of Congressmen, Senators and state legislators who refused to take appropriate action.
Every time you hear terms like "smaller government," less regulation, deregulation and "keep the government off my back" you're hearing code words for the policies which caused all this mess. If you go out next month and vote for them anyway you get what you deserve.
This is another interesting post about the financial mess we are in and how we got here. The key to remember is: Don't vote for the guys promising smaller government and deregulation as the answer. We need real regulation to help get us back on track not less!