After the financial meltdown in 2008 there was a lot of attention and a lot of blame heaped on the one institution that was in a position both to predict that the meltdown could happen and to prevent the meltdown. That institution is the Federal Reserve –The Fed –and, in particular, its office in New York City, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It’s responsible for regulating the banks on Wall Street, which is to say some of the biggest banks in the world. It’s supposed to monitor what they do, it’s supposed to make sure they don’t break rules or take risks that could bring down the financial system.

This is a great hour of radio. It's not surprising that our financial regulators are captured by the most powerful group of financial organizations in the world, but for it to be so extreme, and especially after so large a scare as in 2008, is unbelievable.