And speaking of Ponzi schemes: Just about the same time that the life insurance bundling story surfaced, news broke about a taped phone conversation of Bernie Madoff advising his colleagues on how to fool the Securities and Exchange Commission (the gist: don't know too much about what Bernie is doing, and don't put anything in writing).

I'll grant you that the American institutional memory is pretty short-term, and that once the economy improves, all may be forgiven of the investment bankers who helped put us here in the first place (many of whom are still collecting big salaries and bonuses, in spite of their bad judgment). But only a year from a time when each new day brought more horrible news about how the global economy was on the brink of Armageddon is still a little too close for comfort for me.

The reemergence of this sort of egregious behavior is beyond ironic and more idiotic–and evidence of the type of hubris that created the crisis we're still struggling to emerge from. It also helps build the case for the federal government to step up financial services and investment regulation–an issue that's taking a backseat to health insurance reform, but one that will surely win back the spotlight once the dust settles on healthcare.