Not sure if anywhere else are public finances already quite as intertwined-with/invested-in "the cowboy Wall St financial system" if you will, as the American ones. All these current and incoming pensioners.. all the numerous social insurance schemes.. all these bonds that must be sold to same (effectively, behind the schematics) to fund current-day budgets.. remember the formers' contributions have already been "spent" (into "assets") and at collection time the entire scheme will have to remain just as fluidly operational as it was before. These quants and funds etc are not just managing some nobles' / oil sheikhs' / super-rich moneys after all --- perhaps not even primarily, in absolute numbers! This makes any and all regulations and reforms forever a major challenge in "realpolitik" terms.