While senators debated an accounting reform bill today in advance of an expected vote on Monday, Democrats and Republicans eagerly tried to blame each other for years of supposedly lax oversight of corporate behavior.
"We didn't want to mess it up by being draconian in our measures, but we didn't want to mess it up by being too lax and really having bad behavior interfere with the game-day experience".
The issue is a hot one because some consumer advocates say that financial companies were able to get away with lax lending standards and predatory behavior during the surge in home sales before 2008 in part because the lenders could claim that more restrictive state rules did not apply to them.
The courts have also imposed fines for drinking in public and other behavior considered morally lax.
Later, as a young professional at The Washington Post and The (Newark) Star-Ledger, I learned that even at respectable papers, the standards for behavior in journalism were far more lax than they were in other industries.
These changes come as the White House has stepped up its antitrust enforcement efforts, strengthening its scrutiny of business behavior after what was widely considered a period of lax regulation during the Bush administration.
The crisis has prompted the resignation of its director general, George Entwistle; a shake-up in its news division; and an inquiry that reported last month that lax leadership and "rigid management chains" had left the corporation "completely incapable" of dealing with Mr. Savile's behavior.
Constitution experienced an uneventful tour, sailing in company with and, until the behavior of the crews during shore leave gave Jones a reputation as a Commodore who was lax in discipline.
