There hasnt been enough pain felt yet for the demands for social justice to be considered. You can't have social justice without ridding the system of the corrupt people and practices which not only created this mess but have allowed the society to fracture.
So Far; not one significant indictment and there hasnt been any constructive regulations being forced on the finance sector in exchange for the government pumping money inot the sector.
None of this will come to pass without eradicating the corruption which is at the heart of the business and government relationship.
Unfortunately much more pain will have to be felt before anything constructive will be done and the current solutions of stabilizing the finance sector and some stimulus package for the economy is folly because there is no impetus to change the ethos.
We are doomed until the country is no longer run by the same interests who have caused the problems.
None of this addresses your issues re: social justice and ethics. However it does show that their absence can be economically inefficient as well. notes from no w here
The current crew doesn't want to change the existing system. It has been too valuable for them. This system was designed to most efficiently extract wealth from the less well off and transfer it to the very well off, so they assume any solution to systemic malfunctions should take the same course, which it has: i.e. give taxpayer money to the financial institutions that caused the problem. As reason follows desire, it is probably impossible for Paulson to conceive of any solution that does not continue this process.
If there is no such solution that will work, then try another such solution even if it is clear that it can't work. At least it will get the money where it needs to go and that is the most important thing. Only further damage can happen while these folks remain in charge. As for the next administration, time will tell if they can bring themselves to do anything that will help. Just following through on campaign promises would be a significant step forward. As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
