Dwelling on the lessons learned from financial interventions during the Great Depression of the 1030s, a few lessons are drawn with a view to avoiding future financial crises. Other financial crises which triggered national and global economic downturns and financial interventions made during those periods also dictated different lessons which were distinctly different from the lessons of the past, offering an array of financial interventions. The presentation argues against over belief in market forces as they fail to ensure atomicity in creating desired results. The paper also argues the case for strong market-based public activism and regulatory governance for ushering in financial and economic stability. The developmental State will need to put in place proactive regulatory framework to guard against  arbitrage and forbearance in order to control financial market excesses which are often triggered by speculation and derivatives. This is indeed the panacea for ushering in the impact and compact of financial prudence during the downturns of economies as evidenced by the East Asian financial crisis of the 1990s and of global economic downturns in recent years. Experience and experiments point to the need for market-based public activism to right the wrongs of the private sector which often economically misbehaves.