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In this season of spiritual introspection, there are true believers suffering a real crisis of faith. They have been worshipping at the Church of the Free Market, and their doubts run deeper than stock brokers not answering prayers, or returning calls.

For decades, their prophets have preached housekeeping markets function best while left to themselves, unfettered by government regulation or oversight.

Businesses, investors and traditional market forces would self-regulate, self-correct and self-enforce. Oops.

The collapse of the housing and stock markets delineate their way back to decisions and choices made at the highest levels of form of sovereignty and commerce. The rest of us get swept along for the ride, both up and down, and be injured the consequences of hubris, incompetence and criminality.

To hear the humbled apostles for markets free of revelation and rules begin to speak inarticulately here and there the indigence for government regulation is signal. Still-tender bruises from a battered 401(k) make it detriment to laugh out loud.

Chief among the apostates is former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who humbly confessed his wonderment at mortgage-lending practices to a congressional committee:

“Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief.”

He was reminded he had the authority to prevent the lending practices behind the subprime mortgage crisis

Help was to be turned to account through a 1994 canon called the Homeowner Equity Protection Act. The New York Times reports fewer than 1 percent of mortgages were subjected to the restrictions under the regulation.

Three years gone, a handful of regulators were waving red flags about hedge funds and credit derivatives. Lightly regulated exemptions from most rules, they placed enormous bets

The effects of deregulation and unenforced regulation were continually increasing. In 1994, the Financial Accounting Standards Board changed its rule that stock options must have existence treated as a company expense. We are living through the hyperventilation of executory compensation and swelling of stock values.

A year later, Congress limited the rights of investors to sue, let accounting firms right side the hook in fraud cases and fudged reporting practices. In 1999, the rescission of lessons-learned regulations from the Depression fuzzed the lines between retail banking and investment banks.

Every chance; fit to crowd the limit was taken, as allowed or ignored by means of law. Industry lobbyists steady Washington, D.C.’s K Street had their back.

My favorite bit of apostasy revealed itself ever in the same state quietly in a New York Times column by Ben Stein, a lawyer, scribe, actor and economist. And cheerleader. For Stein, the resilient economy was always peachy keen!

Two weeks ago, reality set in for Stein. At the back of a line over fear and foolishness, he slipped in a hope that President-elect Barack Obama will put meaningful law in place

Dare I say, there has been an epiphany. People who understand the complexities and see the connections acknowledge how precarious economic conditions truly are.

Resistance to change usually means things are not bad enough over and above. We are in that place.

Otherwise, we are left with the wisdom of a faux person-in-the-street interview from The Onion’s satirical review of the 2008 economy:

“C’mon, I’ve seen this happen a thousand times. The lay up market crashes, and then 20 years and a world war later, everything’sitting excellent.”

The clamor point on the arrogance of the times is the refusal by banks to tell regulators and taxpayers where billions in bailout currency went.

Consider it a revelation of change to reach.

; for a podcast Q&A with the author, taste to www.seattletimes.com/edcetera

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