The Usual Rapists of Consumers

are lining up to support their ability to continue to rape consumers.

While re-regulating the financial industry is a good thing, one must keep in mind that a lot depends on who is the boss of the regulators. Can anyone doubt that if new regulators, working out of the Treasury Department, would have been taking three hour lunch breaks back during the Bush Administration? Just look at how the EPA slacked off on going after polluters or the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor went to sleep for years or the absolute degradation of the Civil Rights Division most of the Department of Justice, if you think that regulation from the Executive Branch is the cure.

Independent regulators may not be much better. The Federal Reserve had the authority to regulate the mortgage market, but with Alan Greenspan, a mumbling devotee of Ayn Rand, at the helm, nothing was done. Greenspan dithered, the economy inflated and now the entire world is paying the price.

Regulations and laws are one thing. But they need to be enforced, otherwise they are just a pathetically bitter and tragic joke (sort of like the legacy of George W. Bush).