The legal constraints on behaviour that used to provide protection have been lifted. Many disasters have been rescued in a series of spectacular bail-outs. There is a moral hazard involved in repeatedly rescuing investors - it encourages them to take even bigger risks. But if the risks become too much larger, a bailout may become impossible.

Furthermore the USA as a whole has a whole series of structural economic problems, for instance the persistent large current trade deficits that add to (what I think is) the unsustainable debt levels that we'll have to pay eventually.

Cheers,
Ben