Even in the context of the financial crash, we spend too much time examining and pillorying the behavior of individuals and even institutions when we should be instead evaluating and combating problems that are systemically based.

Of course, the focus on the system is what is intended to be diverted by the sacrificial scapegoats offered up from time to time. Which is to say, Lehman Brothers and Enron, Angelo Mozilo and Bernie Madoff – the prosecution and the vilification of these institutions and individuals serve to perpetuate the system as it stands, not to diminish it.