Unfortunately this moronic government lumps them all in together and blames "bankers" per se as the source of all evil to direct attention away from their own failings.
Although two governments of the 80's were instrumental in crating the environment in which such a problem could come to pass, it was the banks what did it. There were four facets to the problem:
1) those that created the credit products and sold them to house buying punters who couldn't afford them
2) those who de-risked those products
3) those who unwittingly bought extremely risky products
4) those that saw the whole thing unfolding and betted against those risks.
1, 2 and 4 were in the US, 3 were most US and European banks. Given that most of the the people who created and traded these products couldn't see what was unfolding (those that did kept quiet, they were making billions), it is highly doubtful that any government could have done anything about it other than change the rules which was never going to happen.
As an aside, Alex's posts strike a cord with me, he is absolutely correct that experts are by and large fake, charlatans who feign knowledge but who in reality are clueless and consequentially dangerous. They all got it wrong, even Mr Buffet so what chance does some unknown minor league fund manager or some witty Times report have. Give up with the literal news links and read between the lines.
Personal opinion: Europe is in a bad way, the UK appears finished the US will come out of this first and strongest. But don't underestimate the banks, they'll make things work for them and subsequently for you and I...eventually. In the world of finance and industry, the government always has been and always will be nothing more than a new F/O on the jump seat hanging on to the tail.