Attorney General Eric Holder announced that he will be stepping down as the nation’s top law enforcement official, sparking discussion across the political circuit about his legacy, his greatest accomplishments and his greatest failures.

To me the greatest failure is clear — when banks committed massive amounts of fraud, contributing to the collapse of the economy. Congress and two presidents came to their rescue and gave them trillions of taxpayer dollars so they could get even larger and more powerful, making them an even bigger risk to our economy. One man in the U.S. had the power to put the executives who were the architects of the crash behind bars. That one man was the Attorney General, and he failed to lift a finger.

We may never know how much of that decision was Holder’s alone, and how much was at the direction of President Obama, but it is clear that nothing was done to help the people of this country while Washington D.C. bent over backwards so far and so fast they broke their back helping the banks.

Holder went after the institutions, winning fines that were a fraction of a percent of the amount swindled from homeowners through fraud, and again from taxpayers through bailouts; however, he never laid a finger on the executives responsible for the institution’s actions.

Just how little the government monitors Wall Street became clear this weekend when “This American Life” broadcast an investigative story with ProPublica. A regulator was hired at the New York Federal Reserve following the financial collapse. Shocked by what she saw, she started recording conversations at the Federal Reserve with Goldman Sachs, the bank she was tasked to oversee. In what Bloomberg columnist Michael Lewis described as “the Ray Rice video for the financial sector,” it is clear just how little the government actually regulates Wall Street.

After the post collapse report concluded that there was a culture of deference to the banks, as well as one where nobody felt secure enough to speak up to their supervisors, the Federal Reserve promised change. The tapes made it clear that this did not happen. In one example, Carmen Segarra, the regulator brave enough to do what was right, found that Goldman Sachs had no policy on conflicts of interest. This came to light after Goldman was sued for conflict of interest when the energy company El Paso was in talks to be acquired by Kinder Morgan. Goldman held a large stake in El Paso, and was advising both companies on the merger. One banker also had a $340,000 stake in Kinder Morgan.

Segarra did what she was supposed to in standing up to her supervisors who insisted Goldman had a conflict of interest policy. It is clear they were continuing the culture of deferring the better interest of the nation to the banks. She was fired shortly after.

Goldman swiftly changed its policy when the tapes came out, and Congress will hold a hearing about the evidence the tapes provide.

But don’t expect much to happen. The financial sector has become a revolving door for people leaving Washington D.C., including former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who recently lost his primary election. Cantor was part of the Congressional leadership that oversaw the bank bailouts.

The supervisor who fired Segarra now works at GE Capital. Each of the last three heads of financial oversight for the U.S.—the Secretary of the Treasury—has worked for Wall Street in their careers.

One person in the U.S. had the power to right the wrongs of Wall Street and send a message that executives will be held accountable for their actions. But the deference to Wall Street extends far beyond the Federal Reserve; it penetrates the entire government. Eric Holder thought it more important to prosecute whistle blowers like Edward Snowden than Wall Street frauds. Apparently, in 2014, looking out for the good of the public is the more serious crime.

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