There will always be fewer winners than losers.

All those people who bet on someone else's failure, borrowing money for shorting, using derivative instruments, not really to hedge any more, but to profit from failure.

That is is what partly broke the bubble.

Sure assets were overpriced to a degree, but the way they were shorted out, people did make lots of money on that, and then they became undervalued. How can you build something up, as people gain from shorting it, and profiting on failure instead of success.

How could Madoff, say he made all those trades, billions of dollars worth, over at least a decade, if not two, without anyone noticing it was all a fiction.

SEC I can understand how got caught up in all the rules and regulations, but if it didn't make sense, it should have been investigated a lot sooner.

Madoff lived a pretty good life really, whatever good means.

He is going to die anyway, what difference does it make to him, getting caught now, his life is almost over.

The market is obviously only as efficient as the big (Dick) players' honesty allows it to be.

I don't know why guys like this write these articles. We the people, get it.

Now go kick Kudlow and Cramer in the balls. They and all of their Wall Street cronies are resisting even the smallest regulation from the government at every turn.

Get on their shows and call them idiots.

Wall Street pre- and post-fiasco, is nothing but a scam, pure and simple. George Patton

I agree we have not adequately investigated the cause of the crisis, and this needs to be done prior to "fixing" it. I think Congress and the Administration need to put in place a 9/11 type commission that reports back to the American people. At this time we all are picking our favorite bogey man (in your case Wall Street traders). I don't know if you are right or wrong? Are the high salaries a symptom or a cause? I would suggest a more thorough analysis.

I bet the big Dicks know exactly what happened.

One big one.

Madoff took "out" possibly 65 billion which was meant to be invested in the stock market. This money somhow was misussed for years if not decades wihtout being detected.

The war effected the oil market so drastically the price went from around $35 to over $100, and then back down with a thump.So possibly the risk related to the derivative related oil market would have benefited only people who knew how one thng was effecting another thing, and the true future price oil. Everyone else was left in the dark.

Millions of people possibly feel that the people selling them financial products, which are future oriented are not providing them with valid information.

So people begin to believe SEC is either incapable of enforcing the rules or something more sinister, investors may have been set up so that they were making phantom earnings, and the fraudulent statements they were receiving were not being noticed, even though the amounts were in the billions, as their phantom earnings could be taxable, their wealth was being stolen, and money was going only God knows where making IRS the biggest benefactor of the Madoff scheme.

Another reason, people betting and shorting on failure of real companies making it impossible for them to get the financing they need.

People stopped believing the market is a fair playing field, and are guessing the big Dicks have inside information that is used to the Bid Dicks' advantage, and the little investor would be better off with money staying either staying in the bank or being played in the casino or being stuffed in Grandma's feathered bed.

Oops; [He is going to die anyway, what difference does it make to him, getting caught now, his life is almost over. ] Madoff didn't get caught, he gave himself up, before the scheme collapsed, giving him the physical security of jail etc.

The big fat bonuses don't help either in rebuilding investors faith in the market. The difference with Government, they get their revenue through coercion, whereas investors investors voluntarily, and when they stop, market failure will happen.

The status quo president.

If the beast editors notice that I used the word big "Dick", that is really a term used, for investors, with huge pockets. often investor bankers, who other investors follow, and can change the actual price of stock, when selling or buying.

My comment was not about Dick Cheney.

There will be regulation, but it won't amount to anything in the real world. The financial lobby has too much control over the government, so what we'll get is a small, insignificant amount of regulation that may be hard on the consumer, but will only help the financial industry rape this nation more than it already has. As an example, I offer the new bankruptcy regulations, which were drafted by the credit card industry. Diffenent president I know, but the same powerful lobby owns this administration, as it did the last.

Healthcare was another big "CHANGE" that was PROMISED, how's that looking these days?... That lobby is also in possession of the souls of our elected officials, and the LOBBY will decide what's best for the rest of us, and we will be forced to like it.

Obama was supposed to be different, he was supposed to bring an end to the powerful special interest groups that control our governments actions, he was supposed to change things.......................... All that changed was the party affiliation, but all of the power and control rests firmly with the Big corporate money, ALL of it.

Obama has disapointed me and mine. I believed what he said, what he promised. Now I feel stupid.

I would go much further and outlaw short selling across the board. Why reward any 'investor' for failure?
Let's get rid of it, now!

Obama's proposal is massively skewed in favor of big banks. Small ones will fold. The consumer protection part is therefore necessary because he has fed the consumer right back to the big sharks.

Change I don't want to believe in.

Continuing to debate over Wall Street comp is pointless and will ultimately accomplish nothing. In the end any firms that need to cap will see employees exit for the firms that don't, evidence of this is the recent mass departures of staff from the likes of JPM, Citi and UBS to "middle market" and boutique operators - the next generation of bulge brackets. One thing Wall Street is good at is getting paid and that will always be the case.

If you want to fix something fix the Fed...you should be more than just a bit concerned at any new powers the Fed squeezes out of this debacle, after all it is the very same Fed that presided over the crash 1921 and 1929, the Great Depression '29-'39, recessions in '53, '57, '69, '75 and '81, Black Monday in '87 and inflation that has destroyed 90% of the USD purchasing power..and now we want to give them MORE authority over the financial system, way to go.

"Let me issue and control a nations money and I care not who writes the laws"
-Mayer Amschel Rothschild

"Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty which are embodied in one maxim: the fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate" Bertrand Russell.

withcommunism man exploits man with capitalism it is the other way around.

until americans not just politicans understand these two simply stated but profound axioms nothing much will change in america.

spiritual or universal laws not religious dogma but these universal laws apply to all aspects of life yes even to wall street, to individuals and to nations. yes even to tribal mentality.

america is a failed state with two unwinable wars and deep deep trade inbalance and national debt. few in american see america as a failed state but are in denial a common human condition.

if capitalisim which is about profits not people than the universe would be a horrible place with little hope for better things to come in our lives in this world and others.

few will understand my words very few.

The taskmasters of Congress will never let it happen. They will always make-up excuses like..."The talent will go elsewhere."

About four years ago, I was having dinner with two friends who each ran a hedge fund. In the news that day was a story about some Wall Street trader earning a big big payout.

Both my friends immediately picked up that the guy's paycheck was too large for the job he had. "You want that kind of pay, become an owner." The only way an employee could earn really big bucks was to gamble with the firm's money. My friends thought that only owners had the right to take the sort of risks that led to big bucks. Because if they gambled wrong, it was their money they lost, it was their firm that went out of business.

If the big Wall Street firms are too big to fail, then we need to limit not compensation per se, but what traders/bankers do to earn it and the size of each firm's book for any particular line of business. And maybe forcing firms to have more skin int he game. Had Citibank been forced to hold a big stake in that crappy mortgage paper it was underwriting/securitizing, it might have paid more attention to credit standards and default rates. Instead, the more crap they could shoveled out the door to investors, no questions asked, the more money it earned.