Re: The 'Credit-Monitoring' Service scam...
My better ideas are actually very simple:
You have regulation that has been proven to be needed crisis after crisis.
For example, a limit in leverage, a limit that was lifted for the five biggest investment banks in the USA, a crisis came and, surprisingly, only one them, Morgan Stanley, survives as an independent company.
The surprising part, by the way, is that one survived.
Another example of good regulation that no longer exists is a separation of investment and commercial banks, so that the investment branch can't get to use customers money to speculative. Eventually they will lose it.
Another example are the anti cyclical provisions Spanish banks need to keep, not that it is a silver bullet, the saving banks kept them too, but they help.
Another example is that if bank goes bust, it goes into receivership, no big to fail nonsense is allowed.
People who know more about banks than I do are likely to be able to continue, things like independent appraisals of assets, limits on how much collateral you need and the like are likely to be mentioned.
So, you have this regulations, and this is important, you have an agency with real teeth that makes banks comply with them.
And definitely, if some banks break the law, no matter how many billions they are willing to pay to settle, you don't, you convict everyone involved, you also take the billions, of course, but as part of the conviction, not a settlement.
If you do little things like this, you can get a working private bank system, if you don't a public one won't help.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
