Big Finance Free to Screw it up Again

USA today reports on Simon Johnson (MIT Economist) and Joseph Stiglitz (Nobel Prize winner) bemoaning the loss of the crisis moment to make urgently needed reforms to our financial regulatory system.

Here are some quotes:

Johnson on why ordinary Americans should care about finance reform:  " Which part of 8 million jobs lost since December 2007 do you not understand?   Why did those jobs go away? Who lost those jobs?  It was finance.   It was irresponsible behavior by finance."

Johnson on why Obama's team messed up:  "These guys were prepared to govern.   ..... But they didn't ever thingkabout financial reform because the completely drank the Kool-Aid.   They ...were blindsided.   They had no intellectual preparation for this....Why?   Because they bought into the idea, the myth of finance.   what's unusual is the extent of intellectual capture by the financial industry."

Of course Obama knew exactly whom he was appointing when he picked these wall street sycophants.

Stiglitz on whether the political system is capable of enacting major reforms:  "There's a real question of the capacity of our democracy to deal the the big issues.   This is a big issue.   And yet, nothing's being done."

Stiglitz on consequences of not reforming the financial system:  "The next crisis will almost inevitably follow if we don't make the reforms that we've talked about.   We're not out of the woods.?

I've also been following some of the European press - BBC, The Economist.   Europeans clearly believe our political system is paralyzed and unable to function.   Financial reform and health care reform are two urgent needs where the system has just locked up.