The first quarter of 2012 is in the books. Stocks were up, oil was up, US Treasuries were down, car sales were up, US corporate debt was up and housing was sluggish. This scenario points to a consensus that the economy is in some stage of a recovery. I think this is true. Business people will tell you that while business is not where they would like it is definitely better than last year and they are hopeful about the future. At the end of the last administration and the beginning of the current one the executive branch and Federal Reserve chose to bail out the financial sector and stimulate the economy. Our current recovery indicates that these decisions were correct. The next part of the process should be getting our spending and borrowing under control. This is the tricky part of the equation given the current rancorous political environment and our addiction to low interest rates. Weaning the country and the government off these extremely low interest rates will be a difficult test for the Federal Reserve.

After 2008 the regulators (FINRA, SEC, Controller of the Currency etc.) always talk about "lessons learned" rather than dealing with their complete failure to do their jobs in a professional manner. What I don't understand is how can a MF Global situation occur in 2011 and why are the same people still in charge of the regulatory agencies?

Nobody contributed more to the financial crisis than Moody's Investor Service. Now Moody's is desperate to prove they are relevant and are taking every opportunity to make pronouncements about credit and sovereign debt without ever having established they possess any ability in these areas.