Robert Kutner of The American Prospect published an article entitled “The Seven Deadly Sins of Deregulation and Three Necessary Reforms” that I wanted to highlight for some background information on a possible explanation of the economic situation we’re experiencing.

Kutner writes:

“The current carnage on Wall Street, with dire spillover effects on Main Street, is the result of a failed ideology — the idea that financial markets could regulate themselves.”

He outlines his “Seven Sins” and explains them further.

Sin One: Allowing Mortgage Lending to Become a Casino.

Sin Two: Allowing Unregulated Bond Rating Agencies to Decide What was Safe.

Sin Three: Failing to Police Sub-prime.

Sin Four: Failure to Stop Excess Leverage.

Sin Five: Failure to Police Conflicts of Interest.

Sin Six: Failing to Regulate Hedge Funds and Private Equity.

Sin Seven: Repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act.

The full article addresses these ’sins’ in full detail.

Keep your wits about you and learn as much as you can from what’s happening.