The problem is so big now that I doubt any austerity program would work. None of the politicians would vote for it anyway.
The lobbying will continue, the pressure on politicians to play along will increase, the bailouts will get bigger and the crashes more spectacular. They are coming for your money and they’re going to get it. All of the people who engineered the MBS/CDO/CDS scam are sitting on their government-bailout zillions and laughing at you. They sleep well at night in their Long Island mansions or on their megayachts in the Mediterranean, they know they will never go to jail, and the next crowd of goons is going to be even more bold. They know nothing will happen to them.