Regulatory accountability

A handful of the agency’s [Office of Thrift Supervision] officials were always on the scene at an
A.I.G. Financial Products branch office in Connecticut, but it is
unclear whether they raised any red flags. Their reports are not made
public and a spokeswoman would not provide details.

Here is the story, interesting throughout.  One response to this anecdote is to think we simply needed more regulators on the scene and indeed on many other scenes as well.  A different response is to conclude that institutions of many different kinds work less well than we used to think.