A Memo Found in the Street
By BARRY L. RITHOLTZ
Uncle Sam the enabler.To: Washington, D.C.
From: Wall Street
Re: Credit CrisisDear D.C.,
WOW, WE'VE MADE QUITE A MESS OF THINGS here on Wall Street: Fannie and Freddie in conservatorship, investment banks in the tank, AIG nationalized. Thanks for sending us your new trillion-dollar bailout.
We on Wall Street feel somewhat compelled to take at least some responsibility. We used excessive leverage, failed to maintain adequate capital, engaged in reckless speculation, created new complex derivatives. We focused on short-term profits at the expense of sustainability. We not only undermined our own firms, we destabilized the financial sector and roiled the global economy, to boot. And we got huge bonuses.
But here's a news flash for you, D.C.: We could not have done it without you. We may be drunks, but you were our enablers: Your legislative, executive, and administrative decisions made possible all that we did. Our recklessness would not have reached its soaring heights but for your governmental incompetence.
THIS MEMO PROVIDES A BRIEF HISTORY OF your actions that helped create this crisis.
We on Wall Street do not deny our part. We created these securities, we rated them triple-A, we traded them without understanding them. Now that they have gone bad, we are real close to getting the rest of the country to take them off our hands.Thanks, D.C. None of this would have been possible without you.
Very truly yours,
Wall Street
"Nobody wants to have to support this bill," said Rep. John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, the minority leader. But, he added, "I'm encouraging every member whose conscience will allow them to support this."That's quite an endorsement. Golly, I wonder how many Republicans aren't going to be able to support this extremely unpopular bill because their consciences won't let them? you can't blame them. they are all men and women of principle, you know, who put the taxpayers first.