On the recordMay 4, 2010
As the economy faced imminent collapse in 2008, the choice between allowing a complete meltdown of the financial sector and initiating taxpayer funded bailouts was at best a choice between the lesser of two evils. It was reflective of the fact that a complete and thorough lack of financial regulation by the previous administration and previous Congresses had allowed years of abuse and risky behavior by many financial institutions to subject the entire economy to unparalleled peril. We know the system was broken. Consumers weren't protected. They lost trillions of dollars in their retirement funds, housing values declined to record lows, and bank lending dried up. Taxpayers weren't protected. They were forced to bail out the very companies that created the economic disaster. Even Wall Street wasn't protected, as the irresponsible and reckless actions of some institutions left the entire financial industry and the American economy in near collapse. When no one is protected, everybody is endangered.
