Who's to blame?

Michael West summarises the gnashing of teeth about the current 'meltdown'.

Key paragraph:

There is a pattern to these implosions. Every company - Centro, Allco, MFS and now ABC Learning - have five things in common: greed, leverage, risk, suspect corporate governance and complex corporate structures.

and also:

Moreover, on transparency, we won't hear too much from the ASX as it has made a mockery of transparency by kowtowing to the big investment bank clients and making the broker identities on its own trading system anonymous. Its own disclosure is not good enough.

To ASIC, the corporate watchdog; both its bite and bark are small.

There's a book in the reasons why but one is cultural. The SEC in the US is a far more rigorous sheriff.

Let's see how much changes.