Here is the Guardian describing Americans of different political persuasions furious at ‘Fraud Street’.

Buried deep in the story is this sentence:

In the UK, the red mists of anger have been slower to appear but the frustration is emerging with millions of savers and shareholders in Bradford and Bingley recognising that it will become the latest high street bank to fall victim to the financial contagion that has its roots in sub-prime lending to poor American homebuyers.

So if we want to avoid this fiasco happening again, we need to look at the roots of this sub-prime lending, namely large numbers of loans to people who were (for one or other reason) poorly placed to repay them.

What brought that about? One answer is here:

The feuding as to cause and effect will go on, hopelessly entangled in party politicking.

But maybe the emerging rescue plan has some unexpected advantages?