The Buck Stops Where?

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not an expert on the financial sector meltdown. I understand that banks have on their balance sheets mortgage based derivatives that were vastly overvalued and that this has necessitated an influx of money from the federal government to keep the banks solvent. Outside of these basics, I’m pretty much lost (unfortunately I would guess that 99% of the American people are in the same boat). However, after reading editorials like the following from economist Dean Baker (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-baker/geithners-plan-will-tax-m_b_181021.html), it is genuinely difficult to support the current plan or feel optimistic about any sort of satisfactory resolution to this crisis. Although everyone can agree that a functioning financial sector is necessary, it just doesn’t seem right that the banks should be able to eschew accountability. Operating on the fundamentally flawed principle that housing prices would continue to soar into perpetuity, the banks drove themselves into a steep ditch. Ultimately it is going to be the ailing American Taxpayer that shoulders the burdensome and thankless task of dragging them out.