After the abuses of public confidence carried out by banks and financial houses and the subsequent massive taxpayer bailouts, government regulation is required to see that they don't do it again.

New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo reported Thursday that thousands of executives from the first nine banks and investment firms to receive federal bailouts last year got bonuses of more than $1 million. The firms were Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, State Street and Wells Fargo.

Under the Troubled Asset Relief Program the firms received more than $150 billion in taxpayer funds to stay afloat, while more than 2,000 of their employees got at least $1 million in bonuses. More than 20 individuals received more than $10 million each.

America's median household income is just above $50,000, yet the tax dollars of ordinary Americans helped fund TARP, first under President George W. Bush and now under the administration of President Barack Obama. In some countries this would have been met by public outcry, maybe even demonstrations. The American people, however, are probably willing to settle for regulation of banks and financial companies to assure that those receiving bailouts don't nail the public again.

What is no doubt happening now is the financial industry is lobbying members of Congress, partly in the form of campaign contributions, to make sure that such rules are not imposed or that the oversight is done by a body that can be controlled or manipulated by those being regulated. The result, of course, would be a financial industry still free to do what it likes. What it likes includes the tricky, risky wheeling and dealing that got it into trouble in 2008, requiring taxpayers to bail certain firms out because they were "too big to fail."

But enough is enough. Discussion as to whether the regulator should be the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Securities and Exchange Commission or some new consumer protection organization staffed by old boys and pussycats has gone on for too long.

Regardless of which agency does the job, a strong body with teeth needs to be put in place now, to begin its work without delay.