'Business as usual' approach simply insufficient for a future financial market

The financial crisis that sent U.S., European, and Asian stock markets crashing marked a moment of panic the likes of which we have not had since the Great Depression.

For a short period, we were standing on the edge of the abyss. Without the government's $700 billion investment in the banks in order to stabilize the market and revamp credit flow, a complete and total meltdown would have been the outcome. I am not going to pretend I know what caused the financial crisis besides the simple answer of immeasurable greed. I am also not going to pretend that I know how to fix the problems that caused the crisis, besides the simple answer of tighter regulation.

However, I do know that the bailout of the banks cost the taxpayers an obscene amount of money -- money that companies such as Goldman Sachs used to balance their books and essentially use as a get-out-of-jail free card.

At this point, what we should not be saying is, "We bailed out the banks so let's be on our merry way, take a few steps back from the edge and pretend we never looked over in the first place."

Because we will head right back to the same spot and the next time there will be no get-out-of-jail-free card. On October 15, Goldman Sachs reported quarterly profits of $3.15 billion.

The company set aside $5.35 billion for bonuses and compensation. But it is not us -- the taxpayers -- that the compensation and bonuses are for. It's for themselves. One might not see this as an issue; after all Goldman already repaid the $10 billion it had received from the government, so any profits it makes now should be theirs to keep.

The problem is that Goldman benefited from more than just the $10 billion given to them directly.

They benefited from the entire investment of $700 billion, which was a tremendous risk of taxpayer money.

How does Goldman repay the taxpayers for saving it? By handing out lavish bonuses and returning to business as usual.

However, the onus is not on them to stop; it is on the man who promised change to actually deliver. I have been supportive of our president on almost all of the issues that have faced him thus far. Heck, I didn't even mind when he won the Peace Prize. But, he cannot let Wall Street continue to run things. The fact that Goldman is making enormous profits, and giving out obscene bonuses in a time when unemployment is closing in on 10 percent is unacceptable.

It shows that yes, we avoided disaster by saving the banks, but it also shows that some of the banks, like Goldman Sachs, have not learned a single thing.

They used their close ties with the Federal Reserve to orchestrate an enormous bailout that saved their business and then they act like the system does not need reform to prevent it from happening again.

The administration should have capped bonuses when they had the chance and regulated the system when the banks were at their most vulnerable.

Instead, we let them off the hook.

We gave them a hand when they were down, and now their lobbyists are hard at work to prevent reform from taking place. The lobbyists on Wall Street have deep ties to Washington, and a revolving door has remained in existence between the banking sector and the government for decades.

But I know that if enough congressmen realized that they wouldn't get re-elected unless they took steps towards passing legislation that regulates the system to prevent something like the credit crisis ever happening again, there would be change. HR 1207, S604 are the bills dealing with this issue in Congress now.

If the financial industry continues to carry on business as usual without proper regulation, another crisis is inevitable. Except next time, we cannot bail them out.

We literally don't have the money to. Another crisis like the one in 2008 would demonstrate this.

The United States would not be able to recover.