Four years later, we have not seen a systematic dismantling of the conditions that created the crisis. We’ve seen trillions in emergency support thrown at the banks that survived the crash, all of whom have grown bigger and more indispensible, even more “Too Big to Fail” than before. We’ve seen cosmetic regulatory changes, many unrelated to the crash at all, which have not yet been tested and in many not yet implemented. And the core problems of a massive financial sector have not been resolved.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has ended their probe of Lehman Brothers without making any enforcement actions. It’s only the latest in a series of investigations that have either turned up empty or resulted in what amounts to a slap on the wrist. Lawmakers and investors have pressed the agency for more than three years [...]

This UBS “rogue trader” story is pretty amusing, especially because nobody properly explains what constitutes “unauthorized trading.” The implication is that trades that lose money are unauthorized. I think there’s not much more to it than that. And the fact that this didn’t come to light until the trader informed UBS of the “unauthorized trades” [...]

‘Bet Against The American Dream’ from Planet Money on Vimeo. The “next big thing” on Capitol Hill is financial reform, where lawmakers will get together and write some rules designed to prevent the next crisis. And there will be fights over whether those rules are strong enough, and whether they have been made foolproof, or [...]

Kevin Drum thinks that we shouldn’t try to break up the megabanks because it’s functionally impossible: My take is that that’s hopeless. There are things we can do to make banking simpler, but there’s just no way that we’re going back to the 70s. Not. Gonna. Happen. And the chances that Congress — which is [...]