What are the odds?

Barron's online has a nice list of regulatory gaffes and non-calls that got us here.

This one kind of jumped off the page:

2004: The SEC waived its leverage rules. Previously, broker/dealer net-capital rules limited firms to a maximum debt-to-net-capital ratio of 12 to 1. This 2004 exemption allowed them to exceed this leverage rule. Only five firms -- Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and Morgan Stanley -- were granted this exemption; they promptly levered up 20, 30 and even 40 to 1. 

Seems I've heard those names in the news before.

That'd be:

• Goldman Sachs (stopped being an investment bank on Sept 20, 2008)
• Merrill Lynch (bought out Sept 15)
  
• Lehman Brothers (bankrupt Sept 15)
  
• Bear Stearns (bought out/bailed out March 25)
  
• Morgan Stanley (stopped being an investment bank on Sept 20, 2008)
  

If the Fed hadn't propped up AIG, Goldman would have died shortly after AIG did.

Interesting grouping there, no?

(H/t digby)