The laissez-faire approach to market regulation under President George W. Bush’s Securities and Exchange Commission led to the collapse of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and AIG [ AIG 39.85  -0.17 (-0.42%) ], Cramer said Thursday. The SEC also failed to catch convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, which cost his investors billions and billions of dollars. The end result? An environment of immense anger and mistrust toward Wall Street.

But with President Barack Obama in office, the government’s watchful eye is once again focused on Wall Street. And the administration has an ally in the Senate, namely Democratic Senator Ted Kaufman of Delaware.

Kaufman has pushed for more scrutiny of electronic trading, including tougher rules on “naked access.” This is the practice where brokers that are licensed to operate on the exchanges charge their high-frequency trading clients for direct access to those exchanges. As The Wall Street Journal said, it’s like “members of an exclusive club charging others to use their pass.” And while it cuts down on the time needed to push through a transaction, the exchanges and regulators can’t determine who in fact is making the trade.

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