Medary.com

John Stossel has the answer:

Politicians love a "crisis." John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama all think that the government should bail out homeowners who can't pay their mortgages. When they say the government should do this, they mean the taxpayers, including those who  are paying their mortgages. They also think the government should regulate the lending and investment industries further.

Why?

Because "crisis" justifies making big government bigger.

I would add to that the fact that journalists grow and flourish in the reflected power of the politicians that they cover.  I do not see any incentive today for journalists to question the sky-is-falling pronouncements of politicians.  Indeed, journalists (with some notable exceptions such as Mr. Strossel) are often out in front of the politicians, whipping up angst, unrest, and panic, preparing the battlefield for the politicians to come riding in on their white horses to save us all--again.  The journalists then get their Pulitzers and other awards for their reporting which "made a difference."  Oh, yeah, it made a difference, all right.

The thing is, those "crises" that we all get saved from in the nick of time by those politicians on their white horses and their legions of water-carrying journalists are usually caused by the unnecessary and destructive "solutions" to a previous politician- and journalist-fueled "crisis."

It's a sweet system, really.