It would have been so much better if it had turned out that Bernie Madoff corrupted SEC personnel into overlooking his Ponzi scheme.

But it turns out (executive summary here) that apparently the SEC was honest but stupid. Like Forrest Gump.

You can live with a regulatory agency that makes mistakes because of a few bad apples. But an agency with a brain the consistency of applesauce is of no use to anybody — except to schemers like Madoff.