Third, we as a nation need to relearn the old notion of shame -- as in
"shame on you!" Firms like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns were once
responsible Wall Street institutions, built up over decades by sober men.
But their far-lesser successors in just a few months have bankrupted these
venerable brokerage houses -- with seemingly no shame at what they have done
to the image of Wall Street.
Americans used to pay their debts. Somewhere in all the blame-gaming about
the crooks and liars in New York and Washington, we never hear that real
people borrowed real money that they should not have. And they then
defaulted on what they owed to others. Walking away from debts may have been
understandable, but it was also a violation of trust -- and wrong.
Finally, what one makes is no proof of his worth. Almost every head of a
Wall Street firm took tens of millions of dollars in bonuses these past few
years, as they posted phony profits by borrowing ever more with ever fewer
assets. But if financing facilitates the American economy, we should
remember that less exotic and remunerative construction -- such as farming,
manufacturing and mining -- is what really powers America.
Recently, Americans built a new bridge across the Mississippi River in
Minneapolis to replace the older one on I-35 that collapsed last year. It
was finished three months ahead of schedule, and the industrious
construction team that worked 24/7 to make thousands of commuters safer is
now eligible for up to $27 million in well-earned incentives. Meanwhile,
Franklin Rains at Fannie Mae made nearly twice that sum in bonuses --
leaving behind nothing much at all other than billions in other peoples'
debts.
How odd that all those boring lessons from our grandparents turn out to be
true in the globalized, hip 21st century: Save your money. Don't borrow what
you can't pay back. Look first at a man's character, not his degrees. And if
a promised return on an investment seems too good to be true, it probably
is.