The direction this country is headed in? Less ruthless, a bit more order, and a playing field in which honest enterprise pays off better than crooked enterprise.

There's the bottom line. The huge robber-baron fortunes of the late 19th C. were stellar examples of great enterprises, but they were also riddled with crookedness and ruthlessness. Ruthlessness in fair competition, bounded by the limits of civil decency is very different than the kind of ruthlessness which stomps on the innocent, such as demonstrated by crooked insurance companies and underhanded military-industrial outfits.

The old adage that some used as a moral guide of not doing anything you wouldn't want your mother to know about only works if your mother was not a crackhead or an alcoholic like Momma Bush, I think. But barring that, it would be a good rule for some of these money-hungry young turks who pour their hearts into bilking the trusting--the Enrons and AIGs of the world.

And a nation as diversified and polarized as this one gets does not have a common standard of morality. Christians often spout moral dictums which are hollow and live lives totally at variance with them; there is no "Good Book" mentality to inform the broad playing field of business. Failing such a core of ethical measurement, regulation is the sole guarantee that some credit card companywill not loop you in to perpetual bondage to usury, etc.

So I think reforming health care and high finance are necessary steps to make the modern American way of life a tad less life-threatening and ensure a broader field of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".

Just for example, wouldn't it be a good idea to make ratings outfits answerable to a standard of honesty and transparency on derivative packages being sold to investors?

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