"You've told us nothing, and I believe that that is your intention. Your mission was to protect investors; what went wrong? One guy with a few friends and helpers discovered this thing nearly a decade ago. He led you to this pile of dung that this Bernie Madoff was and stuck your nose in it and you couldn't figure it out. You couldn't find your backside with two hands with the lights on. This is pathetic".

Mr. Littaye says many people came to him over past decades dismissing Madoff as a scam, but he says he has no recollection of Mr. Markopolos sounding an alarm ahead of the December debacle.

What will it take for bankers to show a little remorse?... signs of hubris abound. The most glaring is the sacking by Bank of America of John Thain, Merrill Lynch's former boss, after he rushed through generous bonus payments for his investment bankers despite disastrous losses, and the revelation that he spent $1.2m refurbishing his office. Citigroup, meanwhile, has cancelled an order for a $50m executive jet, though only after flying into flak from the media and the Treasury. And, as he fights off lawsuits from angry investors, Dick Fuld, one-time leader of the now defunct Lehman Brothers, has sold his three-acre Florida estate for a princely $100 -- to his wife...

There is absolutely no overlap between the top twenty most costly insured disasters worldwide 1970-2005 and the top twenty worst catastrophes in terms of lives lost. All of the most costly events in terms of property damage hit wealthy countries (where the density of economic activity is higher), all of the most deadly hit developing countries. In addition, eighteen out of twenty of the most costly were hurricanes, typhoons and storms, eleven out of twenty of the most deadly were earthquakes. Why is this? Earthquake deaths in particular can be prevented by engineering approaches that are widely applied in wealthy countries but rare in the developing world. It is more difficult to comprehensively prevent flood and wind damage using similar approaches.

Some investors may be surprised to learn that the Securities and Exchange Commission has a unit charged with outwitting those who would defraud Wall Street investors. That unit's record has, with only mild exaggeration, mirrored that of the N.F.L.'s Detroit Lions, who finished the season winless... Instead of entrusting the S.E.C.'s investigative work to lawyers who dream of working on Wall Street, mix things up by hiring the best of our nation's out-of-work financial and investigative journalists.

The tributes to Sanford I. Weill line the walls of the carpeted hallway that leads to his skyscraper office, with its panoramic view of Central Park. A dozen framed magazine covers, their colors as vivid as an Andy Warhol painting, are the most arresting. Each heralds Mr. Weill's genius in assembling Citigroup into the most powerful financial institution since the House of Morgan a century ago... Mr. Weill's vision was to create a financial institution in the style of those that flourished in the last Gilded Age. Although insurance is gone, Citigroup still houses commercial and investment banking and stock brokerage.

[Glass-Steagal was revoked] partly to accommodate the newly formed Citigroup, whose heft was necessary, Mr. Weill said, if the United States was to be a powerhouse in global financial markets.

''The whole world is moving to the American model of free enterprise and capital markets,'' Mr. Weill said, arguing that Wall Street cannot be a big player in China or India without giants like Citigroup.

$87,000 for an area rug in Thain's conference room and another area rug for $44,000; a "mahogany pedestal table" for $25,000... a sofa for $15,000; four pairs of curtains for $28,000; a pair of guest chairs for $87,000; a "George IV Desk" for $18,000; six wall sconces for $2,700; six chairs in his private dining room for $37,000; a mirror in his private dining room for $5,000; a chandelier in the private dining room for $13,000; fabric for a "Roman Shade" for $11,000; a "custom coffee table" for $16,000; something called a "commode on legs" for $35,000; a "Regency Chairs" for $24,000; "40 yards of fabric for wall panels," for $5,000 and a "parchment waste can" for $1,400.

...it is looking certain at least that the credit markets are more open than they have been for at least a year and investor appetite is allowing for multibillion-dollar deals. Last week, companies raised $152.6 billion by selling debt to investors. That is the highest volume since the first full week of 2008, when volume was $176.3 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data. It is a sign that investor nervousness has dispelled considerably since the near-total shutdown of the summer and fall...