Politicians cannot BY DEFINITION devise regulation or strategy that will protect Joe Citizen because it is not predictable. – manny

Which is why I reserve my scorn for the failures of aggressive compliance and enforcement during the 2004-2008 time frame rather than tracking all the way back to CRA in 1977. Unloading the derivatives gravy train during a multi-year time-frame – the same time frame when multiple analysts were predicting asset bubbles and slowing growth – the devastation to retirement portfolios would have been confined to a 15% to 20% market correction. The effects of carrying 30:1 leveraged securities at the end of an asset bubble was completely predictable. Everybody knew. Except the ones who are now paying for it.