You guys seem to imply that outside of US borders, chaos rules - not the case! There have been far more scams perpetrated on your side of the water, than over here. Hell, the whole of the housing crisis over there is the result of downright corruption and mis-management, so setting the US of A up as an example of the way things should be done, is not the way to go! Another example involves the short-selling scam that was 'outed' by Bloomberg a few years ago, but was completely ignored by the SEC. As for the NFA, they are about as self-serving an organisation as you can get - they always arrive late on the scene, from the trades point of view, but right on time to hand out another round of fines...

If there was a genuine interest on the NFA's part to clear up this mess, you would see brokers banned from using software like Metatrader for a start, at least until Metaquotes removed all the 'steal-your-money' features from it. The reality is that the NFA waits for the scams to be perpetrated, then collects another round of fines. Self-serving...