Hank Paulson in a Businessweek issue commemorating the financial crash five years ago:

I get asked all the time, “What’s the likelihood of another financial crisis?” And I begin by saying it’s a certainty. As long as we have markets, as long as we have banks, no matter what the regulatory system is, there will be flawed government policies.

Now, I’m not about to sit here and say that the financial mess was not a bi-product of failed government policies, but to insinuate that Wall Street was complicit, well, that takes balls. It was Wall Street that funneled money to Democrats and Republicans across government with the express intention of loosening regulation. It was Wall Street that played fast and loose with other people’s money, as always. It was Wall Street that fell under its own weight and then begged the government to bail it out.

Paulson’s policies failed the American public by propping up Wall Street. The banks should have been allowed to fail. Government should have then bailed out the American public. You know, those of us it exists to support: A government of the people, by the people and for the people.