The main moral you should draw from the charges against Goldman,
though, doesn’t involve the fine print of reform; it involves the
urgent need to change Wall Street. Listening to financial-industry
lobbyists and the Republican politicians who have been huddling with
them, you’d think that everything will be fine as long as the federal
government promises not to do any more bailouts. But that’s totally
wrong — and not just because no such promise would be credible.
For the fact is that much of the financial industry has become a
racket — a game in which a handful of people are lavishly paid to
mislead and exploit consumers and investors. And if we don’t lower the
boom on these practices, the racket will just go on.