At the turn of the last century, riding on the back of an industrial revolution, world trade experienced a remarkable expansion.
An emerging United States of America became the shining light of innovation and experimental economics, raising the bar in the understanding of how limited regulation can go a long way in unstifling the human capacity to expand and break frontiers.
Regulation as a concept was seen as an archaic word in this new economic order.
The major global recession of the 1930s lead to a brief period of protectionism as world leaders under pressure from a highly depressed populace were eager to introduce popular policies.
This was believed to be necessary to also install some confidence among the buying and investing public whose aversion to the present state of affairs resulted in limited monetary liquidity.
The understanding of what regulation actually meant became blurred in the frame of world geo-politics which along with capitalism saw the rise of various forms of socialism and communism tailored to various domestic realities.
For the communist and socialist to some extent, regulation became the mechanism used to limit what was perceived as the excesses of free market exploitation of the masses.
To the capitalist on the other hand, it was seen as the main impediment to growth.
A limit to parameter setting as deregulation was recognized was meant to release the human spirit to soar into new frontiers and multiply wealth, increase circulation of that wealth and then generate a trickling down of all possible benefits.
In the light of the ideological war between capitalism and communism, promoting this free thinking idea over centralized planning was one of the main subjects of contention.
Capitalism believed the free market place is so dynamic that it ends up self-correcting any anomaly within it's operations as regards pricing, structure and operational framework.
The role of the state was just there to protect the ideals of integrity, which necessitated legislation like the Anti-Trust law in the United States to protect consumers against price fixing as well as similar legislations.
Since the early 1990s, the pro deregulation debate won the day across most of the world.
Further advancement in this respect has seen the emergence of more limited barriers to global trade and cross boarder investments.
Africa emerging from a Structural Adjustment Program midwifed by the World Bank also bought into the new reality.
Bottlenecks and controls were lifted by the more forward looking countries.
Local moribund industries were mopped up or swept aside by foreign investments and there were major capital inflows and investments, though mostly directed to the extractive sectors.
In Nigeria, the financial sector witnessed remarkable growth and international expansion mirroring what was obtainable in the west and also adopting the Anglo-Saxon management styles.
The oversight institutions like the Central Bank and the National Deposit Insurance Corporation among others followed suit.
Nigerian experts abroad and even foreign expatriates were brought on board to help regenerate the profile and outlook of these institutions to match international standards.
The oversight institutions lacked to some extent an understanding of some of the financial services and operations being adopt as such, auditing was weak.
The proponent of deregulation did not envisage the highly compromising level of greed the human nature can generate I guess.
Many firm engaged in round tripping in foreign currency, Margin Finance to Stockbrokers for share price manipulation, property speculation at an unimaginable level etc.
The main fact was that a lot of money was made, the wealth was glaring, a lot of us jumped into the band wagon, there was a crash and we had our hands charred, not burnt.
O yes we had a lot of blame going round and calls for prosecutions.
How could a few people play us for fools and almost run down the economy.
The oversight institutions, politicians and governments came in for the most blame.
In the midst of it all I ask myself the question, did we not ask not to be regulated? The talk shows on the media, economic experts and we the investing public did then enjoy the status quo and clamored for the state to back off.
Was it a collective amnesia that we saw the evolving signs but managed to convince ourselves that they never existed? With all said, we are where are, what do we do? Centralized control is out of it.
The world must collectively design and implement a strategy to forestall this occurring again.
Limited Regulation should be the way forward.
Reporting standards of financial activities must also be improved.
Better benchmarks must be set that will trigger a regulatory monitoring of details of financial activities.
Obviously a lot of work needs to be done at the political level to generate the will for greater reform and better legislations.
The regulatory agencies need more funding, expert staffing, increased personnel and most importantly, a refined strategy to avoid them playing catch up in their understanding of the financial sector of the economy.
We the investing public as a whole must learn to base our judgment on the fact that building wealth on the back of asset speculation is unsustainable, as such I believe if you intend putting your money into a venture, do a lot of studying of it.
Don't be move by sentiments, let your instinct work for you, but also audit it.