Asian stock markets dive on subprime lending problems

The US subprime failure is managing to drive down global markets. Japan's Nikkei has now lost it's 2007 profits, falling to numbers last seen in 2006. Isn't it interesting how not a single bank regulator anywhere in the world saw the subprime problems?

When we eventually come out of this, maybe we need to look at a less cozy relationship between regulators and those who are regulated. We don't need open hostility, but we certainly can't afford friends regulating friends as we have today. It's doesn't work well in finance, on corporate boards, in the media or elsewhere. The friends or status quo always come out OK (see the Merrill Lynch and Citigroup CEOs) though it just never serves everyone else very well.