In essence, I think that states and countries all around the world have been suckered by well-heeled speculators whose motives and methods were not honest.   Things, like credit ratings and bond ratings, that are supposed to be reliable and relied-upon, were instead “gamed” in what has become an international pattern of crime ... and governments, and government officials, throughout the world were effectively “part of it.”   We are only just now reaching the point of admitting to ourselves, and to one another, that we have all been swindled.  (We still can’t quite fathom “to what degree.”)   We (as a world-wide community) must come to terms with the fact that the very people in whom we had vested great amounts of public trust, are key perpetrators of these very public crimes.   Trust is a linchpin of every civilized pursuit (and quite a few not-so-civilized ones), and it has been “more than shattered” in a deliberate, heartless, ruthless way.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled Perl...

> In essence, I think that states and countries all around the world have been suckered by well-heeled speculators whose motives and methods were not honest.

yes but some economies not only rely heavily on the banking sector, a considerable part of their wealth is produced by "earning" from other economies.

Those governments are reluctant to better control one of their main sources of income.

To take a neutral example: Switzerland and Lichtenstein profit from people hiding their money from local tax.

While those countries are now under heavy attack, nobody dares to talk about Channel and Cayman Islands.

Cheers Rolf