Although your point is taken with respect to the Wall Street firms, underlying all of this is a consumer mentality in our country that will stop at nothing to borrow. This includes many individuals in our society who have no compunction in stretching the truth or outright lying (ie. "liar loans") to get what they want. There are certain individuals with a view that if the equity in their home is eroded, they have no ongoing responsibility to pay back their mortgage loan even if they can afford it. There may well be an excess of corporate greed, but many Americans seem perfectly willing to feed it.

I worked for Washington Mutual Bank for several years in a fairly senior capacity. One day, I was speaking with Kerry Killinger, the recently ousted CEO. and trying to explain a plan to make things better. He didn't want to hear anything because "I only know what my people let me know." I thought that was such a telling statement about him as a leader. And now the company, its employees, and the rest of the country are paying the price for his willful ignorance.

It is more intentionally complex. In 2004, Eli Spitzer and attorney's general of all 50 states attempted to pursue lawsuits against the banking/mortgage institutions practicing predatory loan policies and breaking the consumer protection laws in the states.
The Administration, through the Office of Controller of the Currency, forced them to not pursue the lawsuits, claiming they would police the institutions (while they didn't have as many people as a single state to do this). The banks rolled on unopposed. This is not just greed and bad ethics. It is pernicious public policy that was intentionally carried out.

It started at the top with G. W. Bush telling the people after 9/11 to go spend and spend and I'll take care of you. Then he appointed people in charge with no talent or ethics. Of course he set a good example of flying around in Air Force One at $52,000 per hour while not supplying the soldiers in Iraq with the best flak vests. Rumsfeld said they were too expensive and you go to war with what you have. Bush also didn't listen to the U.N. inspection team that was on the ground before the invasion. Some people think he is great?

So. . . are we saying, in effect, that character counts? With all of the "high IQs, advanced degrees, and big titles" proving ineffective, I would think a person with an honest character would still find a way to get things to work.

When we are led by individuals who are unscathed by dropping the "f" bomb on the Senate floor, when the executives of our top companies are uabashed at stealing the life's earnings of their subordinates while raking in their big bucks, when we sit back and pay the high prices at the gas pumps while oil execs are reaping top earnings, perhaps we should have a re-teach on Character Counts with those leading our country and companies.

In the current meltdown in the financial markets, it will be easy to try and blame all types of people. After Katrina happened, the head of FEMA was blamed, the locals were blamed, the President was blamed, the Corps of Engineers was blamed, and yet as a sophomore in college in 1976, I knew that one day New Orleans was going to be wiped out by a hurricane. It wasn't rocket science to figure out that a city built below sea level, with too small of defenses, was going to eventually be flooded. That there was going to be suffering and a huge mess to clean up. Yet, when the disaster finally happened, the few unlucky people "in charge" were made to answer for decisions made by thousands of people over several decades.

The meltdown we are seeing today in the financial markets at its roots might be greed, but much of what we are seeing is the result of decisions made by people years ago, some of whom are probably even dead. Simple changes like basing pension plans on financial instruments instead of company-backed pension plans, results in unintended consequences. Keeping interest rates artificially low to stimulate economies, globalizing world finance, "freeing" markets by deregulating, etc., all have unintended consequences that even smart people cannot anticipate.

I am not saying that any of the above decisions were bad in themselves, but economic disasters always happen eventually and they are never the result of just a few "bad guys" at the top who messed everything up.

It is too easy to single out the people who are in trouble and having to deal with the issues directly. If we are to learn anything from this, it will take cool, careful analysis. But as I listen to the politicians (it is not good that this is an election year), I doubt that any real thought will go in to the analysis. Vilification of the "victims" (I use the term loosely) and a bunch of emergency fixes is the short-term outlook. We can only hope that the central bank leaders, etc., will have the wisdom to figure out what really happened, and that will lead to some reform so that the next meltdown will have other causes that no one can anticipate. And hopefully, that next meltdown will not occur for another 60 years.

Let the chips fall where they may. Where is the money, who profited from this, who is going to pay for this, and lastly who will benefit from this in the near future? What about the folks who live their lives with the morals and ethics that your commentaries speak about? The old saying, “nice guys finish last” applies again. Maybe this country needs a good wake-up call and to stop living by confidence and to start building deep roots and focusing on the future, not the day. Greed, greed, greed must lead to accountability and discipline when warranted so another version of this does not arise in the near future.

Where will the effects of all this end? Will they? As more and more bail-outs occur, still more and more top execs stroll into the sunset with their millions or more--and oil companies reap record profits as leaders say it's just fine. Will these huge government and energy costs be what destroys Social Security and sends seniors into the streets unable to afford homes or medical care? Will those who benefited THEN realize what they've done? And will they and those in office who looked the other way even care?

What about the honest little guys like me?

I bought a cafe a few years ago and got a loan from WAMU to do so. It was not a successful venture. The Cafe is closed. Who's going to bail me out? I am still paying my notes on time. Why should home-buyers get a break when I cannot? We both made the same mistake going into an investment with our eyes open, and we both failed. Why should they get bailed out and not me?

While there are certainly a number of executives who have earned a trip to the woodshed (or worse), we cannot deny the broader complicity we all have in this mess. Certainly, there are some consumers who were deceived or taken advantage of, but for every one of these poor folks, there is at least one that was knowingly rolling the dice on real estate investments -- and just plain lost.
In the broader view, we all have money invested in retirement funds, and we select the investments that are in those accounts based on what we think we can earn on that investment. The logical outcome is that we put our money in the stock or mutual fund with the highest return (within a category). As stockholders, we pretty much demand a return -- and higher is better. While many executives went over the line insofar as risk/return, they would not have done so if we had not demanded the higher return and rewarded them handsomely for acheiving it.

I want names. Who made all the profits from these deals? Why are they not being held responsible? Let them contribute to the repayment plan. When I make wrong choices, I am held responsible and I don't expect anyone to bail me out.