Watchdog, since you’re concerned about the negative influence lobbyists have on governance, and think we should keep this in mind when voting in November, you may want to read this recent article from Bloomberg.com: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-30/democrats-take-lobbyist-cash-as-obama-knocks-special-interests.html .
Regarding the shift to predatory practices and the “fast buck boys” on Wall Street, I assume some of your criticism is directed at Timothy Geithner, who “as New York Federal Reserve president, the chief regulator of Wall Street, he gave a free pass to just about every single kind of reckless behavior that has brought this nation to its financial knees.” (source: http://nymag.com/news/businessfinance/bottomline/54304/ ) Geither held that position from 2003 until he became President Obama’s Treasury Secretary in 2009 (source: http://www.ustreas.gov/organization/bios/geithner-e.shtml ), so he deserves a good deal of credit for the 2007 economic meltdown.
