It wasn't that long ago that some highly compensated people reassured us that the competitive, private-sector marketplace in securities and bonds and other investments acted as its own cop: We didn't really need the government to watch over it to make sure things were on the up and up. We recall former Sen.Phil Gramm of Texas doing his level best to deprive the Securities and Exchange Commission of any more money or power to oversee trading that had reached levels of sophistication beyond the agency's ability to follow.

It was all in the theme of Grover Norquist's notorious metaphor: Downsizing government to a size so small it could be drowned in a bathtub.

You can thank that attitude for at least part of the economic and financial wreckage you see outside the door.

Think about it for a minute. Aside from keeping the terrorists from killing us, what other job does government do that is more important than assuring the integrity of the U.S. marketplace?

As we examine the ashes of fancy, unregulated securities, wildly inaccurate credit ratings, misplaced risk, you name it, do we really think the profit-driven and technologically sophisticated private sector, ever alert for the main chance or the ethical frontier, can adequately police itself?

The marketplace will always be pushing the envelope and we need some very reliable people to watch out for our separate and national interests.

"The financial crisis shows what happens when unbridled capitalism lacks a strong regulatory check," House Financial Services Capital Markets Subcommittee Chairman Paul Kanjorski, D- Pa., said recently at a hearing on the Securities and Exchange Commission. "We must therefore seriously consider the commission's request to raise its 2011 budget authorization by an additional 20 percent."

That's right, citizens, 20 percent. The federal government is deeply engaged in a healthy debate over how to regulate the financial marketplace. Lots of questions need to be asked and answered. Which federal agencies should do what, and how much should they do? Should there be a single agency to regulate trading in commodities and stocks. Where does the Federal Reserve come in? SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro recently sent Congress a list of 42 legislative proposals for it to consider. Among them is a request for permission to compensate whistleblowers whose information leads to enforcement cases and new laws to let the SEC obtain normally secret grand jury information in instances where it will help the agency on cases within its jurisdiction. It all comes down to resources. All those disgusted with the economic disaster we allowed to be brought upon ourselves should make sure Congress puts its money where its mouth is.