What we do wrong in government

We, as a nation, went through the Great Depression, sure, as we all know.

And with the collapse of the stock market back in 1929, there were examinations of what was done wrong and then we made laws to make sure we didn't do that again.

That makes sense, doesn't it?

So now we've experienced the worst collapse and decline of our economy since that Great Depression, some 80 years ago and what do we do?

Nearly nothing.

Since our economy collapsed, mostly due to banks, the banking industry and the big banks, in particular (read: Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, etc.), there hasn't been one new law put in place--or put back in place--since.

It's only just now, this week, that we're examining what happened and finding out who did what, when, where and to whom.

Some of it we've known for a long time but this Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission's role is an important one--and long overdue.

One of the worst things that was done was this: "...Wall Street's biggest investment banks bought many of the $2 trillion in home mortgages issued to shaky borrowers, converted them to high-yield bonds and sold the bonds to investors including pension funds, insurers and foreign banks. Many of the securities have since defaulted, and investors have lost billions of dollars.

Goldman Sachs even admitted improper actions in the sales of securities, for pity's sake, earlier today.

This was all nightmare enough but then they had to add credit default swaps to this list.

Instead of truly having and buying insurance, for which there are regulations and rules, these companies bought these "swaps", which weren't regulated, as a substitute for true, real, backed insurance.

Only the swaps weren't backed.

There was nothing behind them.

With these 2 details alone--and there was a lot more done blatantly wrong --is it any wonder our banking system and so, our economy, collapsed?

So the thing that's wrong now is that 1) nothing has changed yet, from when these large banks took us all for a ride, so to speak, to all of our peril, for which we are now paying and have to pay and will have to pay, into the future and 2) unlike after the Great Depression, we're letting the banks and their lobbyists and their money into our government, to tell us what should happen with THEIR regulations.

Does this make any sense?

And the answer is, of course not.

80 years ago, we had enough sense to correct our problems and to keep the proverbial fox out of the chicken coops.

We don't seem that smart this time around.

We don't seem to have learned that you don't let the person who made the mess in the first place make the rules for the future in order to avoid future collapses and problems.

That's not very bright, on our part.