Re: the whole subprime-mortgage, debt-as-commodity mess:

It seems to me that heading this off would’ve been as simple as making it so that if a bank that gave a loan wanted to pass it around like that they’d have to get permission from the people that owe them on the loan first — who would obviously overwhelmingly opt for “no”.  Besides, these rules for the most part are conjured up from thin air anyway, much of the scandal surrounds regulatory accidents spawning an entire pyramid scheme that wouldn’t exist otherwise.  Weren’t changes to previously agreed upon contracts supposed to be consented to by both parties anyway?

Oh, wait, that kind of transparency is for commoners w/o government backing.  My bad…