We need to focus on four reforms that don’t require new bureaucracies to implement. 1) If a bank is too big to fail, it is too big and needs to be broken up. We can’t risk another trillion-dollar bailout. 2) If your bank’s deposits are federally insured by U.S. taxpayers, you can’t do any proprietary trading with those deposits — period. 3) Derivatives have to be traded on transparent exchanges where we can see if another A.I.G. is building up enormous risk. 4) Finally, an idea from the blogosphere: U.S. congressmen should have to dress like Nascar drivers and wear the logos of all the banks, investment banks, insurance companies and real estate firms that they’re taking money from. The public needs to know.
5) Bring back that crazy outmoded concept called Rule of Law and apply it against the top executives of the investment banks.
I love the NASCAR uniform idea!. We may not be able to force politicians to dress that way but consider this a call for talented photoshop artists and investigative journalists to team up and produce a website with photos of each and every elected official wearing his corporate colors with logos sized proportional to the donations! It would be an enormous public service.