Even though calamitous lending practices laid waste to the nation's economy, surprisingly little has changed about how the financial arena operates and is supervised. Senior regulators who stood idly by for years as financial firms built their houses of cards have been rewarded with even bigger jobs or are jockeying for increased responsibilities. Awarding increased power to those who failed in their oversight duties flies in the face of all notions of accountability.

Yet those in the public sector ask us to believe that regulators who snoozed during the credit bubble will be alert to emerging problems on their beats when the next mania begins.