Overall, in the long term, we have a completely unbalanced marketplace. The way to balance it, at no cost, is for the federal government to simply require institutions to enclose a one-page envelope--like this--when they mail out their bank statements or credit card bills or insurance policy statements.
This one-page envelope, with postage paid, would invite financial consumers across the country to join a watchdog agency that would watch over the banks. This could be created at no cost to the banks, insurance companies, or the government, and would give the 20 million consumers across the country a chance to band together very easily into a nationwide lobby that would counter the power of the financial institutions.