It is amazing how much there is going on out there in the world that gets missed. Or at least I miss it. Is it that way with everyone? And I'm even TRYING HARD to pay attention now. I wonder how much slips by those who aren't.

Do you know who Brooksley Born is?

In March of this year she won the "Profiles in Courage" award for her work on behalf of the taxpayers in 1998-1999, in spite of fierce opposition from the Federal Reserve, the Department of Treasury, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, in calling for new regulations and disclosures that would bring more transparency and stability to the complex financial transactions now infamously known as derivatives and swaps.  (Paraphrased from Caroline Kennedy's remarks when presenting the award.)

In light of the foxes who have been put in charge of the hen house after the financial institutions drove us to the brink of financial disaster, how little, if anything, has been accomplished in setting up regulations that will keep it from happening again, and the cavalier attitudes of those on Wall St. who are continuing their shameful behavior, we should all be in an uproar.

I realize that health care reform is taking top priority right now in most people's minds, and we should all be working for that. But all the hard work on insurance reform will be for naught if the lobbyists are able to keep us distracted from the biggest danger that is facing us today: the perilous financial situation our country is in, and the seeming lack of awareness of this fact by those who we trust with our financial well-being. Banking regulations are not sexy like health care reform. And they are more difficult to understand. But they are critical.

Why do I bring this up now?

PBS did a special called "The Warning"  that outlines how we got to where we are, in layman's terms, not from the perspective of the financial instruments themselves, but showing how our esteemed leaders aided and abetted the greedy Wall St. tycoons in their efforts to fleece America.

In it, they show how Brooksley Born, the then chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), became concerned about the lack of transparency and inadequate regulation of the financial instruments that ultimately caused the near collapse of the global financial markets. She took the battle to House where she was shut down by the likes of Alan Greenspan, Larry Sommers and Robert Rubin, who succeeded in stripping her agency of all regulatory authority over derivatives.

As a result of their refusal to heed her warnings, the country was subjected to what she called "her worst nightmare." And thanks to lobbyists, the threat to our country's well-being remains, with no promise of re-regulation in sight.

Please make time to watch this show. It is so interesting that it will be a fast moving hour, and open your eyes to a problem far more fundamental than health care.

I am anxious to hear your observations.