Cenk, you are absolutely right. In bailing out the banks with no regulatory strings attached, against written law, we have only exacerbated the problem of runaway banks...

...and I don't know if Obama is aware.

I disagree that the bailouts themselves were a bad idea, as heart breaking as they were to our national deficit, as I honestly believe economists were telling officials our economy would hit a depression if that were to happen. Though, I do agree that we missed the mark in not imposing the bailout and regulation changes when banks were vulnerable to collapse. 

In effort to maintain my belief that Obama knows exactly what he's doing and wielding every power he has as President in the current political environment, I will blame Republicans (and soft spined Democrats) in the Congress for not allowing regulations to be put into the bailouts when they were dulled out last autumn. It needed to be done then, but it looks as though it may come about eventually.

From a Huffington Post article:

"Geithner's defense [...] came in the midst of his call for greater government control over the generally unregulated but complex derivatives market, which he said contributed to the financial crisis.

'Establishing a comprehensive framework of oversight is crucial,' Geithner said in his opening remarks to a joint hearing by the House agriculture and financial services committees.

Despite apprehension among Republicans, the effort to add government restrictions to these more freewheeling financial instruments has support within the Democratic-controlled Congress."

This was the first sign that perhaps Geithner wasn't a Goldman Sachs sock puppet strategically placed to keep regulations at a mum. I'm not saying he doesn't have incredible conflict of interest, but I'm hopeful in the end regulations will be put into place to strengthen our economy. In addition, now that we have 60 Senators, there's no excuse not to get it passed.

Back to the question: What would happen if Goldman Sachs threatened collapse again? I'd like to say it crash and burn (I'll bring the marshmallows) but we all know they will bail them out again. It's like watching a Greek tragedy... only you're in it.