Honestly, I don't know [how to parcel out blame], which is part of why I posed the question. I do think the big underlying problem is avarice. Personally, the only think I can control is individual finance, so that's where people can start.

An anecdote:

We had lunch today up in Austin with some fellow hurricane refugees, and the same subject came up. This friend has a cousin who has (in the last ten years!) defaulted on three cars and a house. Believe it or not, he just bought another house (!!!) at about $200 a month above his previous payment. How? It's in his (new) wife's name. Despite adding her income, this strikes me as a very "iffy" credit risk, and it bothered both of us that people like ourselves who have taken less risky decisions will ultimately bear the brunt of bailing these people out via federal rescues of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Their securities are of course tied into the losses incurred at Merrill Lynch, Lehman, and Bear Stearns, and those in turn hurt our 401k's.

This irresponsible cousin of my friend (mulitplied by man) therefore has a direct impact on my life. The fact that we are not aggressively teaching financial literacy at the high school level in this country stuns me. (Yes, economics is often available as an elective, but with 401k's driving stock investments into union ranks and a higher percentage of people owning homes, this is critical stuff).

Incidentally, I was at my grandmother's funeral last weekend, and my father gave me all her old textbooks from high school in the 1930's, knowing that I like to look through those things. I was amazed at how thorough and practical (and dry) the material was. There was a whole separate text on money management that was very good. Her high school years were at the height of the Great Depression. Maybe we need to backtrack toward that a little bit.