Dorgan called it

I just felt that merging the risks of investment banks with FDIC-insured banks was going to cause very expensive problems for the taxpayers of the country. And it turns out that's exactly what happened.

If only President Clinton, Congress, and the media had bothered to listen to Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota ten years ago. In 1999, Dorgan, along with seven other senators, opposed deregulation and the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which led to outrageous corporate, banking and Wall Street schemes, such as credit default swaps, which contributed to last year's economic meltdown. Once President Clinton signed the passage of the Financial Modernization Act, also known as the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, the seperation between commercial and investment banking ceased to exist, and the expansion of monstrous financial firms became a reality which could take massive risks with impunity, due to a lack of regulation, a sense and era of Wall Street greed run amok, as these firms were deemed "too big to fail."

On the Senate floor, Dorgan warned against signing the Financial Modernization Act into law, saying "I think we will in 10 years' time look back and say we should not have done this." Ten years later, as he cautioned, America has since endured a finanical and economic disaster, and President Bush's seven hundred million dollar bailout of Wall Street.

Dorgan today concludes that there three steps to be taken to avoid such another disaster:

One is to separate investment banks and FDIC-insured banks. Second, prohibit FDIC-insured banks from dealing in risky financial instruments on their own proprietary accounts... And third, abolish "too big to fail". If you're too big to fail, you're too big. Too big to fail is what I call no-fault capitalism.

Dorgan's plan appears to be much more bold and vigorous than what the Democrats are supporting. But they don't appear to be behind his approach:

You'd have to address that question to the administration. I would like to see them more aggressive on this issue. We don't have any bill on the floor of the House or the Senate to evaluate. My hope is that we'll get a piece of legislation that will restore that separation.

I think it's safe to say that Dorgan isn't the only one hoping for that as well.

When it comes to Obama's proposed Consumer Finance Protection Agency (which has to be very strong as Nomi Prins advocated) Dorgan is undecided (interesting), but says that "clearly there needs to be consumer protection. The question is how." Dorgan has also called for the regulation of hedge funds, a federal task force to investigate the meltdown, prosecute criminal actions, and most of all accountability:

It's one of the most frustrating things. We essentially have had modern-day bank robbers, except that they wore gray suits and not masks and there's been no accountability for it. There's no question the system is rigged against the little guy. The bigger interests have a lot more information. They jerry-rig the system so that they always win. I think that has to be one of the lessons that comes out of this experience. [It's been] one of the most expensive lessons in the history of our country.

MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan "celebrating" the Glass-Steagall repeal's tenth birthday, and explaining the mechanics of what transpired with deregulation:

60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft's outstanding report on credit default swaps and the key role they are played in the financial meltdown: