There is no such thing as human nature; there is only animal nature and the possibility of not giving into it if core values (as defined as behavior when nobody's looking) can override animal instinct.
Arianna reported in her blog: Larry Summers: Brilliant Mind, Toxic Ideas.
In a speech at the Kennedy School of Government in September 2000, Summers declared: "The traditional industrial economy was a Newtonian system of opposing forces, checks and balances... While, in contrast, the right metaphors for the new economy are more Darwinian, with the fittest surviving."
It appears that life is not ready for primetime.
As long as there is life, it seems that there is a "survival of the fittest" mentality that will not be deterred. Darwinian finance in a free market has been unable to resist the temptation to hedge bets, stack odds, create barriers to entry and just plain lie and cheat. Character, ethics and even law have not made it possible to level the playing field which a just and civil society should provide and maintain for "free" markets to flourish.
Checks and balances will not work in a financial system or government, where each special interest (be it Wall Street vs. Main Street or Democrat vs. Republican) believes that winning is both everything and the only thing. This zero sum mentality has infected much of our society. You see it in our communities where "we shall work together" and "all for one and one for all" has been drowned out by "every man for himself" and "all for none and none for all." You see it in our sports where steroids have all but poisoned the record books. You see it in advertisements offering to help you avoid paying taxes that you rightly owe. You see it in our marriages where spouses would each rather be right than make their relationship better.
By virtue of reverting back to our animal instincts, human beings must now by default embrace a Newtonian finance of regulated "checks and balances" being meted out and administered by the government. In the absence of the ability to cooperate and collaborate - or at least play fair -- for the common good, Darwinian finance has become an idea whose time has come and gone. And it will stay gone until human beings can be trusted to be fair in their dealings with their fellow human beings.