Interestingly, the 2nd and 3rd largest bank failures in history just occurred these last few months, how's that regulatory environment working out?

2008 happened because of faulty loans and a faulty credit rating agency that was allowed to capitalize on whatever credit score they chose to dole out for a new financial instrument called a credit default swap. (often AAA scores for property bundles that had some good loans and a bunch of over extended terrible loans)

Anyone who was dumb enough to take out a loan for $800k in CA and then put in a pool with their equity gains that happened a month after they bought on a 5/1 arm, all the while earning $50k as a tire service center employee, yeah pretty much should have to accept the consequences without the more intelligent purchasers bailing them out. I know I was taught about financials in school, as well as to not do drugs. Not my fault if others didn't listen.

A-B=C

A is your income,
B are your expenses
C is what's left over and that has to be positive to survive.

It doesn't get much simpler than that.