People are only now beginning to realize the real estate bubble of the noughties was naught but a gigantic pyramid scheme. There is unexpected resistance to the idea of bailing out the investment bankers who did most to get us in this mess (while paying themselves handsomely to do so), and one of the counter-proposals is to give money to insolvent mortgage owners, i.e. reward the imprudent over those who followed the rules, did not lie about their income on a loan application. Economists call this moral hazard.

That said, the idea may have political wings. Investment bankers are not the only ones who like the idea of feeding at the public through. When a substantial enough proportion of the population loses its shirt in a pyramid scheme, it expects to be compensated by the public purse, and sometimes the entire social order breaks down, as happened in Albania circa 1990. Might this be the direction the US is headed towards?