First, on the "shoulda known better" part, or the "we're from the government and we're here to help" angle, newly-released transcripts suggest that the Fed had a pretty good idea of the hell that was about to break loose. But opted to act cautiously, rather than taking steps that might have saved more of our bacon.

Only a few months into the 2007 meltdown, Fed officials somewhat smugly suggested that their tweaks to interest rates would probably solve the litany of dovetailing crises – foreclosures, subprime mortgages, credit chaos, you name it – with even Ben Bernanke seeming to note that it was all little more than a bump in the road.

Their economists also echoed the sentiment that this was nothing out of the ordinary, that there was no way the country could slide into recession, that all would be well. Don't panic. You know how that turned out.

On a slightly more mean-spirited note, the "actually did know better" files released publicly last week on Morgan Stanley's operating procedures during that profitable ride to the bottom make you wonder if you're reading an early draft of Oliver Stone's "Wall Street," versus anything culled from reality.

A Chinese bank that got left holding the bag with credit swap assets so damaged that even Morgan Stanley's own employees called them "Nuclear Holocaust" has sued the firm and … hence, documents have at long last been released to the public.

ProPublica's Jesse Eisinger's piece offers a concise look at the chaos that then ensued as the company quite clearly saw that the housing market was on the edge of cratering, and then bet against it. Helping to destroy the U.S. economy, and the global economy, the results of which we continue to enjoy.

Morgan Stanley responded by saying that, as usual, past results do not guarantee future success, and that investors should have been sophisticated enough to see that purchasing the bad debt was probably a bad idea. 

I've got a college degree and when you try to understand something like collateralized debt obligations, you can see how even savvy investors got duped.

The lesson in all of this? That most revered of American traits, looking out for yourself, continues to be important in all financial transactions – even more so if you're a fiduciary yourself, or you see yourself moving in a fiduciary direction.

If even the federal officials in charge of looking out aren't necessarily doing so – though they certainly claim to be doing so now – you have to be a smart consumer, especially when working on behalf of participants who are trusting in your choices, or will at least make a informed choices based on your picks.