[quote=rrbdlawyer] _popupControl(); Sorry to split hairs, Joe, but I don’t agree.  It’s not that they were merely asleep.  No, I think it’s more sinister.  I think they were in bed with them, to some extent.  Take a look at my follow up posting on this forum and you’ll see that the larger firms (many who brought us this subprime mess) still get off with relative slap on the hands for violations that an individual RR or smaller firm would get slammed for.

  I mean, geez, what the hell do they really think -- that we're all stupid?  FINRA, the states, the SEC all get access to FOCUS reports and they all throw their weight around when it comes time to conduct a routine or cause examination.  We all know the enemas they give smaller firms when it comes to demands for books and records.  Did none of those bullies even notice the growing presence of subprime assets on the books of larger BDs?  Did none of them see the red flags that those assets were being priced on less than rigorous bases?  Did none of the examiners wonder whether the packaging of those shaky products into mutual fund holdings would have any negative effect?   Gimme a break!  I remember the venom with which the regulators went after pennstock hucksters and boilerroom operators and the SOES-bandits.  Isn't it amazing that the same energy never bubbled to surface when this subprime meltdown started to rear its ugly head.  I don't think it's because the regulators lacked either the tools or the manpower.  I think the answer is far more sinister and dishearteninig.  [/quote]   It's more akin to the u.s. gov't protecting big oil.  Same thing.  They are all in bed together.