WHY??? - So many financial regulatory agencies in the U.S.

arellaluI read that a start could be to bring together all of the different institutions and get them talking with each other. Through a facilitated dialogue, they could identify the responsibilities that fall between the cracks (e.g. regulating hedge funds), the different methodologies and assumptions being used, and better ways of sharing data for the purposes of early risk or fraud warnings...

but still don't get why we got to this point, maybe it's because after every financial meltdown they decided to throw another agency or regulation; sort of like patching the problem.... oh whatever !

Oddly enough, government agencies...the military especially...is all a dick measuring contest. It's all about who has the most power, i.e. who commands the most people, who has the largest budget, etc. and all those things come when you have some overblown list of responsibilities that you are in charge of. People literally do things so that they can say, or write on their resume, that they did this massive thing or controlled some huge budget etc. If you got these guys in a room they would just try to destroy the other person so they would absorb the left over (required) employees and the corresponding budget.

Prime example, a good buddy of mine is currently in the Marines as an activated reservist. While state side, he has been running the out processing unit for all the individual Marines (not full units) deploying to the middle east. He used to be stationed at MacDill Air Force base, which was great because he lived in Tampa...they since decided that because all of these Marines are coming from NC, flying down to Tampa to do the process then flying to the middle east that it may be more efficient to do this at the base of origin in NC...mostly because that base has the capabilities of getting the required procedures (shots, paperwork, rifle training, etc) down in a very timely manner should a solider not have something done properly. It stands to reason this would be much more efficient to get done on a Marine base than an AF base...so they moved him and the unit to NC to see if this was accurate. No big deal. Well, for the last year or so they have been planning on moving his unit again, either to CA or to the middle east...which makes no sense since the soldiers are still coming from NC then flying to either CA or the middle east...at which point, should they not have all their affairs in order, they would have to fly back to NC to straighten everything out then fly back to the middle east.

It's one thing to make the move to become more efficient, but it's another to make the move just to make the move and have a new bullet on your resume. Granted this is just one example, but I personally saw things of this nature (though not on such a large scale) while I as in the Army...so one would assume that this occurs at all levels.

Regards