This is just another nail in the coffin of the libertarian hypotesis of self-regulating financial markets. As long as bank excecutives face no incentives to sacrifice short-term profit in the name of reducing systemic risk, there is no reason to expect them to do so. Nassim Talieb has argued something along these lines: once an institution becomes "too big to fail" it has per definition become a public utility, and must be treated as such. Leaving it in the hands of private investors by necessity entails corrupt incentives.

Perhaps its time for the US to follow the lead of European nations like Norway and partially nationalize its major banks. Norwegian banks (with 33 % public/ 67 % private ownership) are forced to take systemic risk into account. E.g. in the mid-2000s they had to stay clear of both CDOs and Icelandic bank bonds. This left some short-term profits on the table, but alowed Norway to cruise through the Great Recession mostly unscathed.