It's called regulatory capture. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture Also note the closely related

It's called regulatory capture. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture Also note the closely related concept of intellectual capture, which is why nobody in the government or the media (except Taibbi and a handful of others) is pissed off about this.