The lack of effective government regulation, and in many cases no regulation at all, are clearly the root cause of much of the fraud and corruption that has been uncovered in Corporate America, especially in the financial sector. It may be going too far to label this failure to regulate as the root of all evil, but that failure has obviously resulted in a great deal of hurt and misery for many American citizens who became victims of corporate wrongdoing and abuse.

The Bush Administration has to take a great deal of the blame for the lack of regulation that has become commonplace in all too many industries in the United States. In fact, the Republican Party made non-regulation one of its campaign promises in almost every Congressional campaign. How many times have we heard that government is too big and needs to be downsized? When corporate bosses realized that their companies wouldn’t be checked closely, some real bad stuff generally followed. We are now paying a very heavy price for the “sins” of the past in Corporate America and for the failure of government to do its job.