Michael Barone

Michael Lewis on the Collapse of Wall Street

January 23, 2009 RSS Feed Print

The always entertaining Michael Lewis talks about the collapse of Wall Street in this interview in theatlantic.com's new business section and writes about it in this article from Vanity Fair.

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Remembering back to the fall Presidential campaign, I remember cringing when Gov. Palin spoke of Wall Street "greed." At the time, I thought she was faulting the simple, natural, and usually beneficial, play of market forces. I thought her criticism of "greed" and "corruption on Wall Street" was simply a cover for her lack of understanding of basic economics. I thought it was demagoguery.

Just as the Atlantic Monthly finally warmed up to Dan Quayle in 1993, and said that he was right -- all along -- about the harmful effect of divorce on children, maybe history will show that Governor Palin was also right. We self-important "elites" thought that we knew better when we dismissed her criticism of Wall Street "greed." At least Michael Lewis believes that greed in fact played a big part in what happened.

California Chuckles of CA 3:59PM January 26, 2009

If getting a good education means losing your self-respect, being a thief, and losing your conscience, I'd rather stay ignorant. All our "Ivy League" schools are teaching our sons and daughters how to be thieves,sneaky, irresponsible, disloyal, bad mamagers, shameless and dishonorable. For years we strive to teach our children to be honorable, conscientious, to have respect and consideration for others and in four to six years we end up getting a Mr. Scrooge. What a waste of time and money. Perhaps the rich and the "elite" think it is a good thing but we see it as the gradual destruction of our nation. And, here is the proof, a nation brought to its knees by the Wall Street Robber Barons who consider themselves "elitist." I consider them thieves and garbage. I have four sons and I hope and pray they do not turn out like these idiots who have cause such pain for our nation. I would rather be proud and poor then steal from my neighbor. I would never trust any of these men again. This is why Americans do not trust politicians or anyone from Washington D.C.

Ann of IA 3:12PM January 26, 2009

A very limited and microscopic view of economic catastrophe; only a small part of the scandal and nothing more than red meat for the left-liberal crowd and specifically designed to appeal to what must be assumed to be the typical reader of Vanity Fair. In the broader analysis, the Federal Government created demand for financing for a tsunami of mortgages and your representatives in Washington well understood that Wall Street's role in the sub-prime mess was merely to provide liquidity to support a mortgage market which had become part of a scheme to encourage contributions to the Democrats in exchange for payoffs in the form of mortgage resources allocated for political purposes, misfeasance in bank oversight and regulation through the Community Reinvestment Act, and malfeasance in securities regulation. All of this benefited no entity more than the Democrat Party.

The majority of Wall Street players donate heavily to Democrats. The majority of readers of Vanity Fair undoubtedly donate heavily to Democrats. The Democrats supported Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in promoting sub-prime mortgages, prevented reform of the those government sponsored entities, and depended on Wall Street to sort out the junk and distribute the risk.

Therefore, the readers of Vanity Fair, helped in their own ways large and small, to create the mess. They read articles such as the one by Mr. Lewis to personalize the rage and transfer the guilt. They read not to inform but only to make themselves feel better. As is the case with all scams, it had a great come-on: it was all in a good cause, to help the disadvantaged. Better yet, the real suckers think they have someone else to blame.

David Bernabucci of FL 12:21AM January 26, 2009

Michael Barone

Michael Barone

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Michael Barone is a senior writer for U.S.News & World Report and principal coauthor of The Almanac of American Politics. He has written for many publications—including the Economist and the New York Times.

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