Economic turmoil brings new luster to some classic catchall solutions.

Sunstein told The Big Money that this “liberal paternalism” approach could be extended to the financial crisis. Situations in which “you can get people into trouble by playing on their hopes, without strictly lying to them”—e.g., subprime mortgages—ought to be targets for transparency: Mortgage lenders playing in the subprime sandbox could be required to give regular invoices to their clients, disclosing all fees and all interest payments separately and in full. This requirement could be extended to other forms of activity, including the broader credit markets. “The best and first line of defense is to inform,” said Sunstein. More generally, all market players need to protect themselves against “information cascades,” in which people act on the actions of others rather than their own situation or the information they know to be true. (Sunstein says political leadership, rather than more regulation, is the preferred way to tackle this bigger problem.)

These ideas actually have some presidential-campaign heft behind them. Sunstein is an Obama adviser, and better loan disclosure requirements are part of Obama’s home-ownership platform.

Other big ideas.