Wall Street cannot be regulated adequately because the culture of Wall Street is steeped in greed and dishonesty. The religion of Wall Street is money; covetousness is the infected blood cell that runs through the Street’s veins. Predatory instincts have overwhelmed the Street’s collective conscience. Thus, the work of Wall Street must be put in other hands.

Clear thinking reveals that economic stimulus should not occur until AFTER Wall Street barons have been shaken out of their highly leveraged positions. Hedged, but not hedged sufficiently, Wall Streeters came into this downturn more vulnerable than Main Streeters because of massive derivative based leverage. Had it not been for the injection of TARP funds and radical policy changes by the Fed, a lightning strike depression would have shaken Wall Street magnates right out of their leveraged ownership – an event that would have been more glorious and praiseworthy than anything since the American Founding.

Assuming (implausibly) that the ghost of Teddy Roosevelt had been given the executive reins in the last six months of the Bush administration, the federal government could have forced the Fed and Treasury to facilitate the transfer of assets from bankrupt Wall Streeters to 50 of the best run corporations and small banks in the nation. At the same time, the Congress could have written legislation to empower Main Street to handle the banking operations of Wall Street. Well run corporations could have begun forcing Wall Streeters to meet ethical standards almost unknown on Manhattan Island for two decades. Gradually, the jobs on Wall Street could have been ‘off-Streeted.’ With this approach the future prosperity of the financial sector would be spread into all parts of the country, not only distributing the benefits of capitalism more fairly but cutting the overhead as well.

The only real loss in this scenario would be a loss of power and wealth for those who prey upon America. Since the predators triggered this financial crisis by their unfathomable greed, a glorious justice would be served with their downfall – a justice not broadly attainable through criminal or civil courts. Happily, the ensuring economic recovery would cause the value of the transferred assets to benefit new owners – hopefully the most virtuous segments of the working public.

Real assets – as contrasted to paper assets – would survive the transfer. What would disappear is the equity and capital stake held by Wall Street’s rich. The wrongdoers would be paying for America’s financial recovery. Furthermore, their ability to rule over America’s destiny would be greatly reduced. This kind of populist victory would be as prodigious as anything hard fighting Americans won in World Wars I or II. Unfortunately, we didn’t know how to win when victory lay before us.

In what has rapidly become a great tragedy, the U.S. Congress put the cart before the horse. Forgetting that great accomplishments usually take some pain and suffering, our country panicked and capitulated when Wall Street threatened financial chaos. We showed cowardice rather than taking up the fight. Had we shown financial ingenuity, we could have taken the billions we poured into Wall Street black holes and used the money to create safety nets for people and small businesses during the transition period. Once the reins of our financial sector were in new hands (with new regulations in place to distribute rewards of economic growth more fairly), government could have hit the stimulus pedal, a new national confidence necessitating far less stimulus that we are using currently.

Once the ship of state was stabilized, we could have begun the process of right-sizing our economy, aligning GDP with whatever is sustainable without debt dependency. As it stands now, tens of thousands of unscrupulous people who brought us to the edge of the precipice will become the primary beneficiaries of the economic stimulus. This is an incomparable calamity for the American dream.

Divine Providence gave us a chance to get it right but our political leaders blew it (while millions of Americans objected). Now the timing of the stimulus is wrong just as the bailout timing was wrong. Economic repairs should come AFTER the market provides various corrections that are not feasible through political or judicial means.

Leveraged speculators cannot cry “foul” when they fall into their own traps, but they will cry “foul” about tax-based attempts to recover fairness through redistribution. Good fortune allowed the wicked to be ensnared by their own wickedness. How is it that our leaders then came along and removed the feet of evildoers from the snares they set? It is almost as though our nation rebelled against the help God providentially provided (i.e., the miscalculation of the ‘masters of the universe’ in biting off more leverage than they could chew). As it stands now, if we stimulate the economy, we empower the beasts to prey upon us again.

America desperately needs some questions answered. Why didn’t politicians allow the market to destroy Wall Street elites while simultaneously extending a safety net to help working people during the transition? Why did the U.S. Congress buckle to Wall Street’s threats? Why did the U.S. Congress fail to show prudent superintendence over the Fed and the U.S. Treasury, since it has necessary constitutional power? If we don’t understand the reasons for our errors, what chance do we have of fighting our way forward from here? And fight we must, for we’re now in the ultimate struggle for the sovereignty of the American experiment. If Divine Providence gives us one more chance on this rocky road, we’ve got to be prepared to make the most of it.

Careful thinkers are well-advised to read James Madison’s 1785 “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments” (widely available on the Internet). In this protest against state designated taxes for the support of religion, Madison systematically articulates an understanding of liberty, responsibility and quality religion that America has seemingly forgotten. Our forgetfulness is one of the reasons we are in such trouble now. Perhaps the wisdom of the Universal Sovereign requires we relearn our lessons at great pain so that the American dream can arise anew. Indeed, goodness will rise when understanding, personal honor, and meritorious contribution are prized above entertainment thrills, material goods and short term gratifications.