Putting Out Fires, Starting New Ones

The failure of government regulators to anticipate the financial crisis and their continued failure to deal with its fall-out has been a noted flashpoint for partisans on both sides of the aisle. The dominant narrative assumes that most observers were content to stand idly by and reap the benefits of corporate largesse while the “getting was good”. It’s true, some saw the signs and did their best to sound the alarm, but in the great tradition of American politics, these Cassandras went unheeded. And if the developments of the last year and a half are any indication, we’re no closer to fixing the problem than we were at the start of the crisis, because as of yet our leaders have been unwilling to make the hard decisions required of them. In the meantime, we suffer from record levels of unemployment, saddled by mounting debt, and with little hope that the culprits will actually be held accountable. All this begs the question, what lessons if any have we learned from this crisis? Former Governor Eliot Spitzer does just that in this month’s issue of the Review, in his piece for the New Democracy Forum, “The Rules.” Read the rest of this entry »