I didn't decide to start a blog to talk about work every day but I guess that's where everyone's attention is at the moment.

The headline quote is a lesson I was taught by an HR guy when I was doing my MBA.  Basically, his point was you have to create incentives that point your employees in the direction you want them to go.  Don't bonus someone for doing something you don't want them to do.
What's been happening in the economy and on the markets the past year or so is the result of no one paying attention to what people in finance were being paid to do.   The regulators turned a blind eye to mortgage lending practices that were abysmal and short-sighted and stupid.  The reason the loans kept getting made to people who had no means to repay them was the financial incentive the mortgage sales people had to move these things.  The banks and finance companies managers had a financial incentive to keep moving the paper.

Talk to anyone in sales and they will tell you they will keep going back to the well until something stops working.  That's because that's what they get paid to do.

You can't, or shouldn't, expect people to do something that runs counter to their economic interest.  That's why you need regulations, rules to place limits on what can and can't be done.  When the people running the government see no need for rules and regulations of any kind, this is what you get. 

This is a scary time but really, hasn't it been scary in one or another for oh, going on about 8 years or so?