Well, I'm watching C-Span this morning, The Washington Journal, topic: Fixing Financial Institutions. Robert Johnson, of the Roosevelt Institute: Project on Global Finance, Director, is being interviewed.
Approximately 22.4 minutes into the interview, Johnson is talking about regulations that protect the public. When all of a sudden he says, paraphrasing: There is a financial theory, out of the University of Chicago, that states that regulators don't work to protect the public as much as they protect the industry they regulate. And it's called The Capture of Regulation. See for yourself: http://www.c-span.org/Watch/Media/2010/03/11/WJE/A/30561/Robert+Johnson+Roosevelt+Institute.aspx
So, I say to myself, "Jesus, Mary & Joseph, that's what's wrong with the system. That explains the SEC, FTC, FDA, and every other ABC of government, not being asleep at the wheel, but being in cahoots with those they are supposed to regulate. The public has been flim-flammed." Does it sound familiar? Very similar to the Public Duty Doctrine.
So, I looked it up (Capture of Regulation). Wikipedia did not do a very good job. But consider this: http://wikisum.com/w/Stigler:_The_theory_of_economic_regulation
Now, this is not a doctrine, like The Public Duty Doctrine. But doesn't this theory explain so much of what is not going on -- consumer protection?
Consider this: The SEC, for example, connects two worlds: regulatory oversight and the economy. The SEC should bridge these two main elements that make America America. The problem with this bridge is that the opposing land masses are eroding away, leaving a bridge to nowhere.
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