We need to restore our institutions

A useful paragraph from Steven Pearlstein:

Economists have long recognized that what distinguishes successful and wealthy countries from those that are poor and failing is not their natural endowments or even their level of human capital, but rather the quality of their institutions. By institutions, economists refer not only to governmental, business, educational and civic entities, but also the formal rules and informal protocols by which decisions are made, disputes are resolved, commerce is conducted and people interact. It was the quality of its institutions that led our country to become the richest, most powerful and most admired on the planet. Now the deterioration of those institutions threatens our standing in the world.

Hardly a day passes now that doesn't bring further evidence of this institutional deterioration.

The Congress must pass legislation bringing appropriate regulation to our financial services industries. That would be the best single step to improving financial institutions in such a was as to prevent the repeat of the boom and bust cycle.