Unless you protect investors from the ravages of rapacious scoundrels who can tap into customer accounts at will, MF Global and Peregrine-like scams will continue unabated and investors will stay away from the business in droves.

FORBES: MF Global Ghost Still Terrifies Average Investors

The imperious Baker and his taxpayer-underwritten PR operation have responded to the ridicule (the most devastating of which was the New York Post's depiction on its front page of the ex-SecState and his co-chairman, former Rep. Lee Hamilton, as "Surrender Monkeys") with the last refuge of scoundrels: a claim to bipartisanship.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Baker's poisoned fruits

Eliot Spitzer tricked the public into thinking he was a no-nonsense prosecutor the same way the criminals behind the so-called Climategate charade are trying to trick the public into believing climate scientists are scoundrels.

FORBES: The Greatest Hoax in History: Eliot Spitzer, Climategate and the Art of the Email Con

They regularly decry the tendency of poor Filipinos to vote for scoundrels based on name recognition.

WSJ: Review & Outlook: Party Time in the Philippines

This underground business, involving as it does hungry sellers and desperate buyers, is a fecund breeding ground for scoundrels and scam artists, despite the high-minded claims of saving lives.

FORBES: On The Cover/Top Stories

As Barbossa, the pirate who deposed Captain Jack, Geoffrey Rush eyeballs his victims and stretches out his syllables in the taunting manner of Robert Newton, who specialized in stump-legged scoundrels fifty years ago.

NEWYORKER: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl