The SEC contends that people who earn in excess of a certain amount of dollars per year do not need the protection of our regulatory framework, which is the reason the funds sector of the securities markets remain almost totally unregulated. Yet, it is this sector of the market that suffers losses of the greatest financial dollar amounts, when greed rus amuck. Madoff would not have been able to ruin so many peoples lives, had this sector of the market been properly regulated. Who is responsible for this failure to recognise the potential harm that an unregulated market can cause. The SEC will continue to say that they have not failed in this regard, because this sector did not fall completely under their purview, but shouldnt' someone at the SEC have the foresight to recognise the growing need to protect participants in all sectors of the market. The SEC has allowed the formation of FINRA, the Financial Institutions National Regulatory Association to become the sole regulator of the Securities Markets, an organisation that is a spin off of NASD, a company that had major regulatory issues in the late 1990s'. They have allowed a monopoly on regulation to be created, which means that if FINRA fails to properly regulate our markets we are in trouble. Who is minding the store in Washington? can we afford such a failure?