When the media has no idea whom to blame for the financial problems on Wall Street, they blame everyone, for the same crime, with the same offense. (The Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments frequently critique the media for this.)
All problems regarding the current financial troubles are treated as if they have had a similar cause, though they may have had their own. Prevention techniques would have varied for each, but are treated as a universal panacea by the media.
Example: The elimination of repos sales off the books (Lehman Brothers), which had nothing to do with the use of bank guarantees by the government, or eliminating mark-to-market accounting, for all banks.
Some in the financial media, as well as the administration have ignorantly treated each financial institution problem as part of a group, to be treated alike, by similar regulatory treatment.
Thus, every entity that has been in trouble in the recent past is tossed in the same basket; AIG, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, and so on. In truth, each had its own peculiar problems and could have been rescued in its own way, probably without heavy-handed government assistance.
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