The financial crisis is not going away. Despite the US government’s bailout of Bear Stearns, AIG, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and Congress’s $700bn relief package, markets continue their tumble in ways unprecedented since the Great Depression. Fortunately, bargain hunters will ultimately help stabilise the markets and investors can expect the economy to begin its recovery.

While we wait for the remaining cards to fall, Congress should immediately get to work on fixing our financial industry’s oversight. Though some have proposed waiting until January, we must start working to ensure that the kinds of failures we have experienced in the last year are not repeated any time soon. Two things must done: (1) Congress must rationalise the current alphabet soup of financial industry oversight between the federal and state governments and (2) derivatives not regulated must be subject to the spotlight of oversight once and for all.