Find the time for John Cassiday’s lengthy New Yorker feature that asks if Wall Street adds any real benefit to society, given that “[f]or years, the most profitable industry in America has been one that doesn’t design, build, or sell a single tangible thing.”
Cassiday quotes anonymous econoblogosphere star The Epicurean Dealmaker, who follows up by answering “how the hell I have the nerve to take potshots at the business which has put varying amounts of bread on my table for lo these many years.”
Reuters’ Felix Salmon points out that Cassiday’s position has real and growing support in center/liberal circles. So why doesn’t that translate into strong public action against the bankers, which does have historical precedent? “Wall Street excesses of the 1920s were far simpler and more obviously egregious than the Wall Street excesses of the 2000s. Unless and until we see a parade of bankers in handcuffs being convicted of serious crimes, I suspect it’s going to be impossible to persuade the public at large that Wall Street is out of control and needs to be brought down to size.”
