One more thing: the new rules should make clear that financial institutions actually will fail if they behave recklessly.

FORBES: Huntsman's Good Idea: Tax Giant Financial Institutions

That is risky: if left for any length of time, those pledges give banks an incentive to behave recklessly.

ECONOMIST: The credit crunch

Capitalists who behave honorably and with restraint no longer have either the platform or the vocabulary to preach their own standards and to condemn capitalists who behave dishonorably and recklessly.

WSJ: Charles Murray: Why Capitalism Has an Image Problem