Another Bomb

And what's also becoming clear is that no one particularly cared, especially those regulators charged with protecting consumers and the investing public.

The Times reported in a front-page story on Dec. 18: "Fed and Regulators Shrugged As the Subprime Crisis Spread."

Individual regulators at the Fed or the Treasury, as it turned out, warned their agencies but were brushed off. And some of them say they were brushed off by none other than former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan. The Times interviewed Greenspan, who it said, "vigorously defended his actions, saying the Fed was poorly equipped to investigate deceptive lending and that it was not to blame for the housing bubble and bust."

Yet, the Fed does have those powers under law.

But it was not the only agency that was sleeping. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency also turned a blind eye.

One thing that is bringing me some year-end cheer at the end of a dismal year is the unraveling of Mr. Greenspan's reputation as the financial wizard whose magic created the country's prosperity.

Funny how little of the financial pain is Mr. Greenspan's fault but how much of the good times were due to his oversight and acumen. But perhaps it was his doppelganger that approved of the Bush administration tax cuts that so egregiously pumped up the nation's deficit. And perhaps it was this same double that did nothing while the housing market started to burn.

But I don't think it was his double that took a multi-million dollar advance on his book, which lays off on others many of the unpleasant happenings that occurred on his watch. No, that was Mr. Greenspan himself, laughing all the way to the bank.