In his evidence to the inquiry he said he did not think Stafford represented a systematicfailure as it had been the only case uncovered on such a scale.
Incredibly, it bears all the hallmarks of subprime with respect to a lack of transparency, a systematicfailure to disclose and an utter absence of due diligence, good governance and accountability.
What makes the Madoff story interesting, though not evidence of systematicfailure of the regulatory or legal system, is that Mr. Madoff and some of his clients had dealt on a basis of trust for more than a generation.
The next fiasco for the Securities and Exchange Commission may prove to be its systematicfailure to address the insinuation into the U.S. capital markets of financial products that, by their reckoning, do not conform to American securities laws and regulations.
We have adopted systems to create and enter those markets that are highly disposed towards failure and we lack systematic understanding of why we are so failure tolerant at the level of our real economy investing activity.