Financial Meltdown

In his November 25, 2008 column in the New York Times, All Fall Down, Thomas Friedman discusses the current Wall Street meltdown. Reflecting on a Times front page story of November 23, 2008 by Eric Dash and Julie Creswell, titled "Citigroup Pays for a Rush to Risk", Friedman states:

. . . in searing detail it exposed — using Citigroup as Exhibit A — how some of our country’s best-paid bankers were overrated dopes who had no idea what they were selling, or greedy cynics who did know and turned a blind eye. But it wasn’t only the bankers. This financial meltdown involved a broad national breakdown in personal responsibility, government regulation and financial ethics.

Further down in his column Mr. Friedman refers to an article by Michael Lewis published in the December 2008 issue of Politico.com, The End:

check out Michael Lewis’s superb essay, “The End of Wall Street’s Boom,” on Portfolio.com. Lewis, who first chronicled Wall Street’s excesses in (his 1989 book) “Liar’s Poker,” profiles some of the decent people on Wall Street who tried to expose the credit binge — including Meredith Whitney, a little known banking analyst who declared, over a year ago, that “Citigroup had so mismanaged its affairs that it would need to slash its dividend or go bust,” wrote Lewis.

Together these three articles (All Fall Down , Citigroup Pays for a Rush to Risk and The End) paint a picture that leads one to question whether President Elect Obama's choices for his economic team and advisers will act in the public interest or in the greedy interests of their Wall Street buddies who sold out our country. Too many of them either were directly involved and/or participated in the creation of the conditions which have caused the meltdown or were somehow promoting the environment.

The story is amazing. The consequences are tragic. I strongly recommend that you read these articles, especially the one by Michael Lewis, The End. Beware that the article is very long but it is definitely an eye opener.