The Lunatics Are Running the Asylum

So what I'd like to know is why aren't heads rolling in the financial and banking world? The industry has received huge injections of capital, largely at the taxpayers' expense, and yet the people who steered the industry wrong in the first place are either keeping their jobs or becoming institutionalized as government advisers and cabinet members.

Not only that, but you could drive a London double-decker through the salary caps put in place at President Obama's request. While they may limit the short-term income of the chief executives there are apparently many devices that they can use to defer income, and still end up with tens or hundreds of millions of dollars once the cap is lifted.

In this interview with Bill Moyers Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the IMF, argues inflluentally that Congress has way too much respect for the powerful insiders whose business inadequacies have put us in this position. Sadly, those people have collectively contributed $180m in campaign contributions, and now seem to be receiving the benefit of this investment by not having to answer the awkward questions they should be facing from all sides.

If something isn't done, and quickly, it's going to become apparent that the greed and corruption endemic in Wall Street extends to Capitol Hill. The people who we elect to serve us are in fact serving themselves, nobody appears to feel compelled to pay taxes until they are faced with a public inquiry, and there is remarkably little concern for the middle- and working-class millions whose lives are being destroyed by the incompetence and dishonesty of the political-financial complex.