Lancaster Tea Party; is regulation really the panacea it's made out to be?

Well, I made it to the Lancaster, CA Tea Party this morning at about 11:40 am, just as they started popping balloons.  I went mainly to see what was going on, but since I don't have a car I had to bike the 26 miles - a great workout in any case, on a nice crisp spring desert morning.  Since I got there so late, there wasn't much to do but sign my name to be counted, throw my tea bag in the Washington box, and head to the bus stop.  The event appeared to include a few Republican politicians, which is a bit against the spirit of the Tea Parties, but then again the spirit of the tea parties is pretty broad since it's grass roots.  I would love to get out of Mojave on Wednesday and head down to the real LA county.

On another topic, I keep hearing about how regulation is the end all response to this.  Whether or not you think the current rules for financial institutions are too lax, do you really think that bringing in government regulators will help?  Or will congresspeople be bribed into creating loopholes for their friends and benefactors?  Will bureaucracy keep track of everyone on a level playing field?  Or will it only slow down the rule-followers while the rule breakers launder their money and find new financial instruments that operate outside the rules cough! mortgage backed securities!