re: catastrophic failures
How many times over our lifetime, or even further back, has regulatory reform been the "answer" to our economic and corruption problems?
You give the government power, and corruption follows. More power, more corruption, and more damage done by the corruption as the power is consolidated into fewer places.
BTW, the fact that you end your post with Bush getting all the blame seems to indicate you never actually read the article. Mostly it was about the Clinton era, and the leftovers that are going to be working with Obama. Hirsh seems to think Obama will be going down the same road.