The key to the financial meltdown, apparently.

I'm only barely clever enough to follow what they're talking about here...

How SEC rule-exemptions led to the Wall St collapse - Boing Boing:

"Special exemptions from the SEC are in large part responsible for the huge build up in financial sector leverage over the past 4 years -- as well as the massive current unwind

...The events of the past year are not a mere accident, but are the results of a conscious and willful SEC decision to allow these firms to legally violate existing net capital rules that, in the past 30 years, had limited broker dealers debt-to-net capital ratio to 12-to-1. Instead, the 2004 exemption -- given only to 5 firms -- allowed them to leverage up 30 and even 40 to 1.

Who were the five that received this special exemption? You won't be surprised to learn that they were Goldman, Merrill, Lehman, Bear Stearns, and Morgan Stanley."

One thing I haven't been able to track w/the government bailout and regulation, is how exactly a government with a 9 trillion dollar deficit is gonna ensure fiscal responsibility from anyone. Like putting the drunk in charge of the bar.