The author argues that there was a seminol event that occured during the Great Depression that triggered governmental reform. One of the major fraudsters of the day was shot and killed and the ensuing trial and investigation of the Match King drove eventual reform.
It begs the questions - do you think that things have gotten so bad in the great Recession that in order for us to trigger governmental reform of the finance sector some wall street fraudster needs to show up on CNN looking like someone from a Quentin Tarantino film got a hold of them?
In some ways we are a much more violent society and in others there is not as much of a pronounced gap between the have's and have-not's. Talk to your grandparents if they are still around. How did they act during the late 20's? How did their parents react? Have we reacted the same way? Do we know how to save? Do we know the pain of consuming less? The obesity rates in America in the last ten years are good thought provokers that maybe we haven't learned any lessons.
I don't think the damage is real enough in today's world. We have food banks, shelters, welfare, food stamps, unemployment, our parents, etc.. I don't think the pain is real enough to drive the type of reform that needs to happen. To move from the fictional financial statements to something that is real.
