One measure that should be part of any financial regulation reform is the need for prior approval, with suitable regulatory conditions for use, of any new form of financial product. If credit default swaps, for instance, had been required to be proposed, analyzed, tested for both risk and benefit, and allowed to be used only with specified conditions like trading in a robust, transparent market and with specified associated reserve levels, the likelihood of recent abuses and the resulting disaster would have been greatly reduced.

Instead of letting the unbounded greed (and sometimes unhinged creativity) of the financial services industry create and issue any kind of product someone will buy, American regulators need to first consider whether letting each new creature into the wild will create undue risk to our financial environment. And it would also make sense to subject many existing types of products to the same regulatory conditioning process, rather than expect Congress to have to assess and legislate rules for each one.

Stiglitz joins Krugman to make a pair of squawking Nobelized kibitzers, sniping from the sidelines and offering very little in the way of constructive advice -- the kind that comes with actual numbers and addresses all the moving parts of a very complex situation, which is what Obama's team has to do. So excuse me while I yawn...

The USA is clearly the scapegoat of the industrialized world. Most countries not only will want America to fund the recovery but will wait for the White House to make concrete, tangible regulation and sacrifice sacred cow banking institutions before they are willing to commit to freestyle economics again.

Stiglitz is right that it will "be bad, very bad" and this is because the USA is a long way from the hurt that the rest of the world expects. China has absolutely no reason to trust the Federal Reserve to not print money and devalue the dollar savings China has accrued. Past experience has shown the Fed to make poor decisions.

The irony! Squawking Nobelized kibitzers? Just...wow.

Look, people that support Obama really need to take off the partisan blinders. It wasn't good when Bushbots used the same sort of insults to disregard Krugman and Stiglitz (and Richard Clarke and UN weapons inspectors) and it's not good for...uh...Obama partisans to do it now. Drop the fallacy (argumentum ad hominem) and address the substance. If you can't do that, there is a great chance that you have no actual argument to make.

Then there's this:

http://www441.pair.com/radiobug/AGreatDepression.mp3

A tyrant has no laws to abide by except their own whims. We give our presidents license to lead for a set period following a set of laws to prevent tyranny. This is not how the financial markets have operated. In the name of free markets we have created tyrants. No society, no sport, no system of governemnt, no financial system can operate without a well thought out body of rules.

So what do we get. The conservative "Free markets" canard is depressing at how clueless and exploitive it is. The liberal "its about main street not wall street" is equally as exploitive but not as damaging. The chances of Washington making a coherent and effective set of regulations for financial markets is dim to non-existant.

So excuse me while I yawn... -- Jim

It's fine, the Obama kiddies get tired after spending all day drawing pictures of Obama with their crayons.

You will eat your children. It's the apocalypse.

Defend president no matter what.

Attack from left. Bad.

Support from right. Good.

We aren't Europe. Damn wimpy Europeans.

Moving Parts.

Lots of Figures.

Complicated.

Obama will save us. Know this. Obama will save us. Know this ... Obama will ...

Surge In Afghanistan. Good.

Attack from Left. Bad.

Support from Right. Good.

We aren't Europe. Frogs. Chickenhearts.

Bomb Pakistan.

Support the President. Support the President...

I got no children, I'm gonna have to eat YOURS.

The problem is a lack of credibility.The actions the Fed took under Woodrow Wilson led to the 1929 Stock crash and depression of the 30's.We must have a financial system we can believe in where the rules are set,enforced and government stays out other than that.There is no credibility in Washington with Congress.They have become paid for tools of business,financials and special interest.Principle must reign over policy.The special interest of a few be it ideological,financial or otherwise must be guided and limited by sound principle.The current crisis is a result of our political powers on both sides choosing to look the other way for thier own political advantage.

The Bush Administration refused to go after the Madoffs,not that regulation did not exist they did not persue even when the facts were given to them and red flags raised.Barney Frank,Chris Dodd and the lot looked the other way when the policies regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the threat it posed to our finacial markets because they let policy win over principle.They defended unsound lending practices and stopped the Bush Administrations attempts to deal with that problem.There are numerous clips on You tube Of Barney Frank,Maxine Waters,etc defending the "soundness"and lack of problems with Freddie and Fannie.I am one of those who believe Bush FDIC commited extortion regarding some lending institutions.They now wish to divert our attention away from the problem because it is them.There is a lack of confidence that the same people who created this problem(Congress) can fix it.

It is not what we are against it should be what we are for and supreme must be sound principle.We all want to educate children,feed the hungry,assist the poor and take care of the sick.We all want to send our children to college and give them better lives.I would not pity the family that wrecklessly spent savings,maxed thier credit and refused to live within thier means.I feel the same way about the government.Sound principle is to recognize those things we all are for and want but be fiscally responsible enough to aquire these things as we can afford them.To not waste money on vacations,boats,fashion or frivolous things and save to reach those goals is how successful families thrive.We spent money we could have spent on healthcare,homeless and hungry on thousands of bridges to nowhere.When fiscal responsibility and making choices based on sound principles returns we will thrive as a country.Until then it is our responsibility to admit we elected these corrupt representatives and it is our responsibility to admit they are the problem and they must be held accountable and they must be thrown out of office.Go to a TEA party on tax day and be heard.We the people need to stand up and fix this or it will get worse.The spin that capitalism has failed is a lie,socialism has been alive and kicking in our black communities for 40 years and how has it made those lives better?It is a crisis of credibility because our government has been corrupted from far right to far left.It is time we face that fact and act.