Fair enough Dave

Where can I find your column?,...would love to check it out. Recently purchased your book on jig fishing for salmon and steelhead and have been enjoying that.

I would have the buck stop with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Along with the Presidential Working Group on Financial Markets. Commonly refered to as the "Plunge Protection Team".

The policies and events that contributed to the overall crisis were decades in the making in my opinion. The abandonment of Bretton Woods I in 1971. The formation of the PPT in response to the 1987 crisis. The repeal of Glass Steagall under Clinton ushered in by Rubin and Summers. The 1998 CRIA by the same crew. The stock bubble fueled by the Fed in 2000. The resulting interest rate policies by the Fed after the 2000 bubble to fuel an artificial housing market. The list goes on.

I agree government agencies tasked with regulating markets failed to perform their jobs. The ratings agencies, the CFTC, the SEC. What they failed to address was the fraud that was, and still is, taking place. I don't believe creating a monolithic consumer protection agency like is currently being proposed and providing government backstops will prevent any of this from happening again. I think it will do quite the opposite.