Someone Actually Apologized!

By james.ledbetter

Created 10/15/2008 - 3:40pm

When Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke were trying to shove a bailout plan—any bailout plan—through Congress, there was a lot of mostly Republican rhetoric along the lines of "This is not the time for finger-pointing [1]" and "Let's not play the blame game."

If the GOP doesn't understand why Americans don't trust them on the economy, here's a hint: We want someone to blame. We want an explanation for why the systems in place failed miserably. We don't need public beheadings, but if neither Washington nor Wall Street will take responsibility for the greatest financial crisis in 70 years, how can anyone be assured that it won't happen again?

The lack of American accountability became stunningly clear today, when Hector Sants, the chief executive of Britain's Financial Services Authority [2]—the regulatory body that's sort of a cross between the United States' Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Reserve Board—actually apologized for not preventing the meltdown that effectively led to the nationalization of Britain's banking sector.