Endagering the rest of US

Lately I've been reading a book that came out earlier in the year called "Wreckless Endangerment" (Morgenson and Rosner) that was released earlier this year.  The book is a detailed account of how America managed to incur the largest economic crisis since the great depression.  Starting with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) during the Carter years through George W. Bush's home ownership initiative and beyond the tome lays out in specific detail how our system failed.  The book details the growth of an industry that, under the auspices of providing "painless" housing to the lower and middle classes managed to suck resources of the middle class dry until the entire system imploded upon itself.  Make no mistake, we all participated in one form or another in what would become our biggest crisis in my lifetime, so far.  If their were only a way to translate this book into common parlance.  The crux of the message this book offers is a scathing argument against corporate corruption and political corporate cronyism that, in hindsight, is obvious from both sides of the political isle.  I have heard it said that no one has been prosecuted at the highest levels of these organizations because while there was much morally or ethically wrong with what was being done, there was nothing legally wrong with the process in place.  I can't understand how it can be legal for an organization the size of Countrywide, the largest mortgage company in the country at the time (now defunct) to package mortgages that were clearly non-compliant and then forward them to Fannie Mae, who would presumably have systems in place to check for compliance, but then maintain the loans or allow them to be packaged and sold to investors as AAA investments.  Even describing the process, however, one senses the ambiguity that affords legal protection.  The lesson is that the corporate world and the public world have become so homogenized and are playing the game together - to their own self interest.  This is a very informative, ultimately frustrating read.  In the end the question remains:  What do we do about this system?