Paul Krugman on Financial Crisis as Teachable Moment

Paul Krugman on what any of us who expected our current U.S. financial crisis to be a teachable moment have actually learned from the way the government has handled the crisis:

Never mind relearning the case for bank regulation; what we learned, instead, is what happens when an ideology backed by vast wealth and immense power confronts inconvenient facts. And the answer is, the facts lose.

He's right.  And the implications for the future of democracy in the U.S. are mind-boggling.