The problem is, as noted by the above article, due diligence. We have become so accustomed to “Uncle Sugar” taking care of us, we forget that, in a deregulated economy, Uncle Sugar is often either looking the other way, or in bed with the crooks. And, even in a regulated economy, crooks slide in under the regulator’s eyes and still ply their trade. We have forgotten that nobody takes care of us better than us; no one has our best interests at heart unless we do.
We are not only going to have to start paying attention, we also must learn to act when we see problems. What really emerges out of this [is that] people sometimes forget to conduct the due diligence when dealing with others with social prominence — and especially in the hedge fund area where people think you have to be really smart to be in hedge funds," said Jeffrey Solomon, president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies. "In many ways, for all investments something like this is tragic, but for nonprofits where boards have the fiduciary responsibility of acting with great prudence, it is even more tragic.” (Ibid)
We bought into the deregulation bandwagon. The foxes convinced us that regulations handicapped them and their businesses. Idiots that we were, we didn’t consider that what they considered business was fleecing the public—us. Deregulation means industry has no rules, that they can do what they want and the individual has no legal recourse. We can’t allow anyone to have that kind of power, or we will regret it—as we do now.
Deregulation allowed the banks to buy across state lines, stick their fingers in all sorts of insurance and investments, and literally “become too big to fail.” Now, after years of deregulation, after the banking, insurance and finance industries have become so big that their failure could take the economy down with them, they have come to the table whining about a bailout. After the taxpayer and generations unborn bail Wall Street out, after our national parks and assets are allegedly put up as collateral for loans from foreign entities, after we sell the soul of the nation, what’s left?
How much will be left of this country’s assets, how much of the public lands and assets will the next generation be able to claim?
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