America's socialism for the rich

The US has a huge corporate safety net, allowing the banks to gamble with impunity, but offers little to struggling individuals

America's banks are pushing back on efforts to regulate them. While politicians talk about their commitment to regulatory reform to prevent a recurrence of the crisis, this is one area where the devil really is in the details

The old system worked well for the bankers (if not for their shareholders), so why should they embrace change?

Rewriting the rules of the market economy – in a way that has benefited those that have caused so much pain to the entire global economy – is worse than financially costly. Most Americans view it as grossly unjust, especially after they saw the banks divert the billions intended to enable them to revive lending to payments of outsized bonuses and dividends. Tearing up the social contract is something that should not be done lightly.