I think I am starting to figure it out. Self regulation in Canadian financial, legal and accounting professions have allowed conditions to grow to the point where these three entities can control a pool of capital in excess of a trillion dollars in Canada.
While doing this, they are given the keys to the kingdom in the form of self regulation powers. It is not exactly the same, but similar in principle to allowing the Hells Angels organization to be self policing in matters of crack cocaine. The reasoning is that they are the largest market participants and therefore the best qualified and most interested in maintaining an orderly market.
The article in todays Post about Spinrite Income trust being bought back for cents on the dollar, by the same good folks who earlier bought them for "cents on the dollar' the first time, then dressed them up and sold them to the public for "tens of dollars on the dollar", helped bring it all into perspective. The public is being abused financially to the tune of $30 to $60 billion dollars each year, and in large part this is being done "knowingly" in the reckless pursuit of "more" by professionals who are allowed to abuse the system.
With support from the various interested parties, the accounting, finance and legal professions, anything can be packaged up and sold to Canadians. Knowingly tainted investment products can be compounded with knowingly tainted investment advice, and between the self policing accounting and auditing industry, the self policing legal industry, and the self policing financial services industry, riches will abound.
The fact that all too often the public is the "victim" of these financial services is just a side issue.
