The SEC has declared a new crackdown on securities fraud cases. Mary Schapiro, head of the SEC says that there are 525 investigations underway and 397 enforcement actions in the works, up 30% from last year.

The problem that Schapiro is facing is that the public is clamoring for justice to those responsible for our financial meltdown. This means actually getting inside our big banks and finding out who specifically pulled the trigger for all of the reckless trades that were made, causing losses so huge that the Federal Reserve had to bail them out and is still spending trillions of taxpayer dollars buying their toxic assets to get them off the hook.

Just like the government's tardy recognition of the recession, nine months after the fact, Washington has become embarrassed over and over again by the scandalous behavior of Wall Street investment banks and corporate executives. This includes: overindulgent life styles at company, shareholder, and taxpayer expense; outrageous bonuses by money losing companies; corporate jets; lavish business retreats; gaming of stock options and more.

Our nation has been strip-mined by corporate executives that think short term, focus on themselves instead of their company, and people they represent, and have been negligent to consider the repercussions of their actions or inaction.

Strip-mining allows for the removal of minerals in the fastest and easiest way possible grabbing at surface material as you work your way down and cause havoc to the ecosystem. Environmental problems are of great concern now more than ever and the process is heavily regulated -- more so than the economic strip mining of the last few years.

Since Washington is so affected by lobbyists whose interests are not aligned with the overall public well-being (note: I did not say welfare), as the cynic would say "the best government money can buy", the public is not getting its monies worth.