http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1877605,00.html

To the fine people of America,
Wall Street is not your friend. We have labored for years under the delusion that a rising tide lifts all boats, and that the kind people on Wall Street are eager to aid in the communal boat rising. This is perhaps the most successful con foisted on the people of America. If your boat rises when Wall Street’s boat rises it is because a smooth talking financial wizard has not sweet-talked you into giving him the mast of your boat, and maybe the hull too. People with a burning desire to help their fellow man do not go to Wall Street, they feed hungry people, or organize the mass-feeding of hungry people in countries with difficult to pronounce names. If in addition to being kind they are also useless, they work for the UN. They do not work at Goldman.
The Republican Party has convinced much of America that it is wrong to regulate these corporate titans. As long as we sit back and assume that Bernie Madoff is made of stern morale fiber, it will all work out. Recent events have suggested a few cracks in this system. Mostly because the entire premise is flawed.
Wall Street is about making money, however, whenever, and often, at whatever the cost. Unfortunately, finance has developed in such a way that when Wall Street goes, it takes everyone with it. The finance world is bound up in the state of the national, it is perhaps the most public industry today, and everybody has a stake in it. If you own a credit card, take a loan, or hold a mortgage, you are a part of the financial system, and when a corporate bigwig eats it, he will often take you with him. Finance is the new farming; back in the day farming was the big thing in America, its collapse meant America was going to explore the magical world of depression. Now it’s finance, but the Republicans insist that finance is out of bounds because it is private, despite the fact that everyone participates, and much of it is based on government policy, and banks come whining to the government when they get hurt, and of course taxpayers foot the bill. So yeah, the financial sector is pretty damn public.
In closing, people of America, don’t listen to the Republicans, don’t protect Wall Street from regulation. I assure, Wall Street will NEVER protect you.