So, "Who stole the people's money?"

[davidhume2000]

3. It's not the "government" it's the politicians

Great article and very informative but Rakoff says, "what I am suggesting is that the government was deeply involved, from beginning to end, in helping create the conditions that could lead to such fraud."

The problem with this is that the government is not a monolith, and there were massive, corrupt, partisan political influences that resulted in the errors he is referring to. In short, the three decades of Grover Norquist economics, propagated by the corporate bosses under the guise of economic libertarianism, is what, "helped create the conditions."

There were plenty of people in congress who did not support deregulation, and if they were aware of the risk, would have supported better funding of oversight - they were still part of the "government."

Rakoff makes the Tea Party mistake of decrying the "government" because there is so much corruption, inefficiency, and dysfunction, but that is not a justified indictment of "government," but an indictment of the proliferation of corrupt, complicit politicians.

In the same way Rakoff argues that we must prosecute the executives not the corporations, the finger needs to be pointed at politicians not the "government."

Still an important read, however.