The Senate hearings made clear: Goldman Sachs—and other Wall Street firms—profited by gambling with the American peoples’ livelihoods. It was a classic “heads I win, tails you lose” scam. As Sen. Carl Levin memorably stated: “You knew it was a shitty deal, and that’s what your emails showed.”

    But, what Levin and other Senators would speak is the unspeakable truth: Congress failed to harness Goldman Sachs and the rest of the irresponsible actors on Wall Street. Goldman is in the business to make money—at any cost.  Congress’ duty is to protect the people from the destructive behavior of that business model.

    Congress failed to do its job because of it was too busy being vigilant about pocketing huge sums of money from Goldman Sachs, and other financial services’ firms, rather than being vigilant about the public interest.

    Most of the press continues to refuse to make the connection or admit the obvious. Editorial pages of major newspapers are not calling for the return of every dime to Goldman Sachs. Both parties are responsible for the legalized corruption that led to our crisis—and we are laying the seeds for another crisis, no matter what legislation passes, because of the continued flow of campaign contributions from Wall Street.

    The political theater was great and the Goldman Sachs’ folks, representing Wall Street as a whole, deserved to be skewered. But, let’s be real: the system is deeply corrupt and that appears not to be changing.