These elites will now be tempted to do even more underhanded things with government bailout money, in attempts to cover up the severity of their crisis. This "putting lipstick on a pig" will only serve to provoke a downward spiral that will most certainly eventually crash. In my opinion, it is clear what must be done; I agree wholeheartedly with Johnson and Kwak. The United States government needs to wake up to the big picture and take a "tough love" stance with big banks. These banks must be broken up and nationalized, strict regulations must be reinstated as a form of punishment for the abuses leading up to this crisis, and "good ole boy's club" symbiotic dependencies must be abandoned in order to save the global economy. As horrible as it sounds, some of the very, very rich may have to settle for just being very rich. And some white collar criminals...

Other countries are falling hard already, and if the U.S. falls the domino effect will be unlike anything in history.
The Great Depression served as our warning from history, to be remembered so that it would not repeat itself. Unfortunately, that was long enough ago, and circumstances have changed so dramatically, that we no longer believe the lesson applies. Just as spiritual leaders sometimes say of the meaning of life: we are here to learn lessons and we will keep learning those same lessons over and over again until we choose to remember them. It appears we will have to learn the lesson of the Great Depression all over again; however, this time there is much more at stake.

References

Johnson, S., & Kwak, J. (2009, 05). The Quiet Coup. The Atlantic, pp. 1-4.