In 1938, the New York Times called Whitney the biggest Wall Street inmate since Ferdinand Ward, who drove President Ulysses S. Grant to ruin. In fact, the nation has a long line of financial crooks dating back to William Duer, whose bank speculations ruined many people around the year 1800. The latest edition of American Heritage Magazine summarizes many of the worst rogues.

But in all walks of life, including finance and government, the vast majority of people are honest, and a certain percentage are not — sometimes spectacularly so.

The video now on YouTube (what video isn't on YouTube?) was filmed in 1934. In it, Whitney is reading from a prepared statement opposing President Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan for a National Securities Exchange Act, which ended up forming the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate investments. This, he said, "will not only destroy our securities markets, but will as a necessary consequence interrupt the flow of credit and capital into business."

That's ironic, of course, given all he was trying to hide. But it was ironic in another sense, too. Roosevelt's regulations didn't prevent Bernie Madoff. Con men succeed by gaining our confidence. Why should we believe further regulation could keep the world safe from them forever? Who are the angels in government who will make it so?

Jay Evensen is editor of the Deseret News editorial page. E-mail: even@desnews.com. Visit his blog at www.deseretnews.com/blogs.