I'm pretty much in despair as to what you do about this when we have two political parties which seem to have joined forces against the people.

Thanks once again professor!

I'm glad to see this sort of thing being written. But, as with many other issues, it seems the opinion leader class is waaaaay behind (light years really) the regular people of the country who, as the constant victims and patsies, have been well aware for years now how utterly outrageous are the operations of the banking and other financial "institutions" of our nation. The moral/ethical corruption is now so deeply ingrained in the worlds of American business, government and politics that it is staggering to contemplate. I honestly wonder if there is any realistic hope of recovery for us in the long term or if we are now terminal and beyond the point of being able to hope for recovery.

I think it's important in this matter as well as in other critical areas of public policy that we recognize, as Co. Allard points out, that Democrats at the helm of oversight committees have meant little in the way of even cursory protections for the citizens of the nation or of our economic stability. The entire system being corrupt necessarily means the Democats too are infected with the same rancid, stinking infection and are thus an integral part of the problem that brought about the disaster we find ourselves in. We, as a nation, have been brainwashed and bullied into a system built upon placing our trust in the most rapaciously greedy generation of businessmen ever allowed to bring ruin upon themselves or a people that I am aware of.

Even the most causual and uninterested of observers could have known that the government was up to it's eyeballs in collusion with the corrupt businessmen over the past 10-15 years. All one needed to see the truth was the tiniest bit of honesty about what was occuring. But the corruption and decay of established standards of conduct and decency in business and government have been so thoroughly perverted and destroyed that even many liberals just considered this sort of rampant unethical conduct a price to be paid for business "success" and continued economic "growth." Naturally this is foolishness on so grand a scale it is difficult to comprehend just how stupidly twisted it is, but that is what has happened to our country.

The bankruptcy bill, passed by Democrats, and riddled with the most outrageously self-serving provisions for financial institutions, has to be one of clearest examples in recent times of the complete ethical bankruptcy of our system and the grand-daddy of all chutzpah and brazen corruption of our system and our laws, but barely a voice was raised in oppositio either in Congress or in the media. The greed and self-dealing of the financial industry and the bipartisan coalition of political prostitution that made the bankruptcy bill possible was clearly a huge sign of the extent of the disease in our body politic and in the tawdry, unethical world of business where next quarter's profits is the only goal that is important.

This highlights the necessity that Democrats need to look in the mirror on just about every major issue that has come down the pike over the past 8 years. Just as importantly, so too does the entire chattering class which includes the media and the "opinion leaders" that are constantly given a platform to review and analyze the public's business and who dominate the public agenda and debate on all issues. Nearly without exception, the leading lights of this class have either been silent or offered little in the way of criticism or real opposition to the ongoing rape of the common citizen and/or the dismantling of almost any protections we had as a nation from the sort of predatory greed that is a constant presence in the business world and always has been.

It is the existence of the opporunity for the (now transparent) criminal behavior without consequences in the business world (and how easy it is to get away with it) that is responsible for the collapse of a financial system that attracs unethical, sickeningly greedy, sociopathic personalities into that world to begin with not unlike how pedophiles are drawn to professions such as the priesthood and teaching because of the opportunities they present to easily carry out their perverted desires and ambitions. Knowing the dangers, have we attempted to restrain or protect our nation or our economy from these sociopathic parasites? No, we most certainly have not. What we have seen instead is a greater and ongoing elevation in power and social status over the past several decades of the very sort of predators whose quite predictable handiwork has now nearly destroyed the economic stability and strength of the once astoundingly durable US economy.

Instead of protecting ourselves from this criminally unethical element, we have heaped praise and admiration on the leeches and idolized the worst of their personality traits and their pathologically irresponsible, dangerous behaviors. The business schools are even now producing yet another generation of amoral, unethical thieves who will call themselves businessmen and who will also assault every sensible regulation or other necessary "obstacle" to their manic pursuit of a quick buck. These young people idolize and worship at the altar of the very scum that have now brought the financial system to it's knees and they study how they did it and dream of using for themselves the philosophy of unrestrained, unregulated malfeasance that made it all possible.

Our society is sick indeed. The corrupt, criminal behavior that brought about this extraordinary economic catastrophe is the metastatic cancerous tumor that has now overcome and infused itself in all our legal and governmental safety mechanisms and laid us bare, weak and vulnerable in a way most living Americans have never known. Even now, the magnitude and extent of this cancer goes unrecognized by most in the media and by the population of the nation generally. This is not a disease that occured overnight and it's ill effects will not go away, even under the best of scnarios, for years and years to come.

I honestly wonder if perhaps it isn't too late for America to recover. The disease is so pervasive it may be inoperable and that nothing can save us now. Perhaps, like a terminal cancer patient for whom no treatment is any longer effective, we may have to simply admit the reality that our death is imminent and prepare for the end of our existence as we have known it. Ahmedinijad may have been right to declare at the UN this week that the American empire is at an end and will soon, of necessity, have to retreat to within it's own borders. The sick and dangerous desire for global imperial dominance so apparent these past 8 years is only another glaring symptom of the same malady that has spread to every portion of American society. Glad that the foolish and immoral attempt to establish a Roman style empire globally and propped up by military force, put to an end, I tremble for my country and our posterity when I consider how weak we have been made by those who supposedly kept us economically strong and that much of our future now depends upon the largesse and decency of our crediors, the largest of which is the dictatorship in Communist China.

I dont' think we have yet even to begin to pay for the profligacy and corruption we allowed to grow and metastisive in our once great nation. How bitter it will be when we and future generations look back and review how easy it would have been to save our system before it was too late. And how bitter it will be when we see how we squandered America's promise as the last best hope of the world.

Good idea, a consumer protection commission aimed at those financial institutions we all must have in our lives. This would be a good time to push it as the banking industry has been wounded and the public is very upset about bailing them out. The States are impotent and an autonomous entity ala the Federal Trade Commission is what is needed. A good next project for Barney Frank and his House Financial Services Committee.

We've got the $#%%@ agencies. They need funding, teeth and oversight so they're not captured by the people they're supposed to regulate. See how long the FTC took to do anything at all about identity theft, for example.

The main question is what kind of teeth would be required to make such things stick. Maybe crminal responsibility for officers. Or maybe just liability at $250/hr for time spent by consumers fixing their issues.