The elephant in the grass that no one wishes to discuss is GREED. Corporate executives totally mismanage a company and are rewarded with huge bailouts by their cronies on the board. The only thing that matters is short-term profits and not the long-term health of a company. Just look at Enron. People are no longer willing to settle for 6-7% growth but require companies to push for 20-30% and the only way to achieve those kinds of gains is by cutting people. That can go on only so long. No one wants to produce anything anymore; they want to gain instant wealth through the stock market but get bailed out when things don't go so well. There's also a disconnect in the advice provided to us flunkies by the pros. They tell us hang on to your stocks, don't sell, look at the long-term. Well, it's not the little guy selling that's driving the market down; it's the pros and big fund managers who don't follow their own advice. In the meantime, the Feds have lost all interest in regulation thanks to 20 years of deregulation (a plague on both Democrats and Republicans.)

One added note I should have mentioned is the Iraq War, which is transferring trillions overseas. Al Qaeda must be laughing themselves silly as we remove our shoes at airports while they pick us apart economically. Isn't that the way Reagan brags about bringing down the Russians; get them in an unsustainable war that will drive them into bankruptcy?

The only people who don't want to discuss it are the one's dirrectly involved and the faith-based free market cheerleaders.

'the Feds have lost all interest in regulation thanks to 20 years of deregulation (a plague on both Democrats and Republicans.)'

what pray tell has been deregulated in the last 20 years. we haven't had a real good deregulation since reagan deregulated ma bell in 1984.

what was wrong with that?

What was deregulated? The mortgage industry lobbied heavily to essentially be unregulated, and was successful. This led to the no-doc NINJA loans, which were bought by wall street, and then sold off as complex debt securities. All that, and the push to increase homeownership on the part of the poor, and you now can see exactly how we got here: an unregulated mortgage industry (i.e., loan ANY ammount to ANYONE) + the ability to package and sell these crap mortgages for big commisions + the rating agencies giving these packages of crap mortgages AAA ratings= financial disaster.

We, the average tax payer, we, who play by the rules, are left paying for all of this, while these sleezy mortgage brokers and wall street sh*tbags are sitting on some carribean beach right now, living the high life.

How does that make you feel?

'What was deregulated? The mortgage industry lobbied heavily to essentially be unregulated, and was successful. This led to the no-doc NINJA loans, which were bought by wall street, and then sold off as complex debt securities. All that, and the push to increase homeownership on the part of the poor, and you now can see exactly how we got here: an unregulated mortgage industry (i.e., loan ANY ammount to ANYONE) + the ability to package and sell these crap mortgages for big commisions + the rating agencies giving these packages of crap mortgages AAA ratings= financial disaster.'

you claim the industry was deregulated and regulated in the same paragraph. which one is it?

The banking and financial securities industries were deregulated under Clinton and the trend then continued under Bush. There is lots of blame to spread around though. Clearly the accounting industry (I've read several books about Enron that make this abundantly clear), the rating industry (the mortgage securities were rated aaa - a joke at best), and business schools (business ethics 101???) have failed in meeting the minimum expectations of their professions. Unfortunately, Obama and Clinton (I'm an Obama supporter) both have ties to the banking industry and that does'nt not bode well for a serious look at Wall Street. Spitzer, unfortunately, was the only one who seemed to give a damn and we all know what happened to him.

Try reading it again. Where do I claim the the industry was regulated?

''''All that, and the push to increase homeownership on the part of the poor...''''

that's where you said it is regulated. who pushed who?