You Can't Have It Both Ways, Part II

Deciphering whether "the economy" -- whatever that means -- is starting to recover is too difficult. It is to vast to wrap one's arms around. However, most of the country's leading banks want us to know they're doing fine: Ten of them have returned the TARP money!

At the same time, though, the industry is contesting attempts to create a consumer watchdog agency, regulate the derivatives market, which partly created the recession, reform compensation so it's actually tied to successful investing, all while raising whatever fees it can and avoiding the central question: how to remain effective while still having billions of dollars of worthless mortgages on their asset sheets.

The government shouldn't serve as the economy of last resort without forcing the industry that created these problems to systemically change so this situation. For some reason, all of Greenwich, Conn., and men everywhere who wear blue dress shirts with white collars doesn't realize this general principle: One can't be rescued and then continue on as before, as if one wasn't rescued. Wasn't Lloyd Blankfein, only three months ago, proposing to reform the industry's compensation system? So much for all that.

Maybe the same conditions should've been placed on JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, et al, for returning the TARP money as were for those with subprime mortgages: Those who wanted to repay their debts early were either contractually barred from doing so or had to pay such onerous fees that it wasn't worth it.