If you want to understand why there's no confidence in the financial system, just read one story about the sandbox, childish fight between the heads of Merrill Lynch (former head actually) and Bank of America, which bought Merrill Lynch.
One part of the he-said, he-said fiasco has to do with bonuses paid out to Merrill execs at the end of 2008.
Merrill had a net loss of $27.08 billion (yes, Billion; yes Loss) in 2008.
When did bonuses become perfunctory and not tied to performance?