The Early Warnings About Banking That We Didn't Heed

By The Business Insider Editors

The U.S. military has long had early warning systems (EWS) to protect against provocation from other military powers. Why didn't we have one for the banking system, perhaps our most vulnerable asset - both physically and electronically? There were three early warnings that banking was in trouble:

• The Savings & Loan industry meltdown
• All kinds of trading and investing businesses being categorized as "banks"
• The banking and finance industry calling its services "products"

Still not sure what's happening/happened? Please do yourself a favor; watch this interview with Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor tapped to oversee TARP.

Second, read [as much as you can] of The Economist's Special Report in the May 16-22 issue, "Three Trillion Dollars Later...." It's a thorough, worldwide analysis of what happened and how to move ahead, unlike anything you'll read in the lightweight American newsmagazines.

The Obama administration is working on this, of course, but we all need to pitch in with our two cents worth - pun intended.

The Editors