How many more crashes before we fix the economy?

COMMENTARY | December 23, 2011
 
Some lessons were learned from the 2008 economic collapse but few reforms have been implemented; moneyed resistance is too powerful and stubborn. So a good question is: When will we fix the system? After the next crisis? The one after that? We sure aren’t fixing it now.

By Martin Lobel
Lobel@LNLlaw.com

“First, do no harm” was the mantra that Tim Geithner and Larry Summers used to rebuild Wall Street the way it was and to protect it from the structural reform proposals of Paul Volcker and others. The result is that, after trillions of taxpayers dollars, we are in the same position we were in before the recent economic meltdown, except that now all the big banks and investment houses are “too big to fail.”

Some observers, including some political leaders, have learned from the 2008 crisis – but not enough have. Pallative reforms were passed but instead of being implemented they are, mostly, being thwarted. So the question as we move into 2012 is:  When the next crisis occurs, will we have learned our lesson? Will we fix the system after that? Because we aren’t fixing it now.