Once again the Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a complaint against a too-big-to- fail bank that hinges on the meaning of one word: “selected.” Last year, the bank was Goldman Sachs, which the SEC accused of intentional fraud. This week, the defendant was JPMorgan, which got far easier treatment.

In the words of Sheila Bair, the departing chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the era of too-big-to-fail banks isn’t just ending -- it’s already over. Consider her statement two weeks ago, in a news release heralding the creation of a committee to advise the agency on how to deal with large, dying financial firms:

Another financial scandal. Another cover-up by regulators. Four years ago, inspectors for the auditing industry's chief watchdog discovered that KPMG LLP had let Motorola Inc . record revenue during the third quarter of 2006 from a transaction with Qualcomm Inc., even though the final contract wasn’t signed until the early hours of the fourth quarter. That’s no small technicality. Without the deal, Motorola would have missed its third-quarter earnings target.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. ’s reputation sustained a body blow last year when the firm paid $550 million to settle a fraud claim by the Securities and Exchange Commission over its sales of a mortgage-bond deal called Abacus. The integrity of its financial statements, however, has never come under serious challenge.

Look through the footnotes in American International Group Inc.’s latest annual report, and you will see a long section analyzing the company’s ability to use past losses to offset future income-tax obligations.

There’s a point in almost every financial crisis when pretty much anything anybody says about it can take on a ring of truth, because the leaders responsible for dealing with the disaster have squandered their credibility.

The resounding condemnation of David Sokol by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is proving to be as strange as its initial pseudo-exoneration of him.

From 2008 to 2010, Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. paid $5.7 billion for eight corporate acquisitions. Its shareholders have little to show for them. Today Nasdaq’s stock market value is about $4.8 billion.

Fox Business reporter Peter Barnes began his televised interview with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner two days ago with this question: “Is there a risk that the United States could lose its AAA credit rating? Yes or no?”

Imagine Snooki calling one of her “ Jersey Shore ” cast mates a trashy boozer, or Alex Rodriguez bemoaning the rampant use of steroids in baseball, or Bernard Madoff calling one of his old rivals a Ponzi schemer.