Former President Bill Clinton, in an April 18 2010 ABC TV interview said: "sometimes people with a lot of money make stupid decisions." This, by way of explaining - 10 years too late - why he wishes he had tried harder to regulate derivatives - such as credit default swaps (near worthless mortgages backed up by nothing).
Bill, sometimes folks with money, such as bankers, who handle our money, too, need to be watched. It's called oversight.
In 1933, FDR and the Congress created the Glass-Steagall Act, which distinguished commercial banks (which loan $$ to you and me) and investment banks (Wall Street), which engage in speculative trading. Glass-Steagall mandated greater oversight of the investment houses.
In 1999, Republican Senator Phil Gramm and his two GOP buds, Rep Jim Leach and Rep. Tom Bliley attached their 262 page Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act to a year-end omnibus appropriations bill. Their bill made possible the 2008 financial meltdown, because investment banks, after 1999, were able to merge with commercial banks and all were deregulated when buying-selling-investing in derivatives. First came the bank mega-mergers, then came the credit default swaps -- all on the watch of our sleep-walking unelected GOP Pres. George Bush.
Everyone now says there was simply no way, back in 1999, for Senator Gramm's colleagues to read the 262-page add-on bill in time to do anything about it. Just too much ink, I suppose. Too many pages.
Well here's an internet answer. Post every bill that's introduced and attach change-detection software. Then, amendments can be flagged and we won't have to worry quite so much about venal or sleepy Senators, or Presidents who would like to think that rich people are smarter and more ethical than the rest of us.
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