If you lived in Washington in the 1970s during Watergate, you picked up the Washington Post early each morning with palpable excitement. What new revelation about the Nixon White House would leap off page one? It was a story that never died.
If you’re in the New York area this summer, there’s a similar vibe building. But this time it’s about Wall Street. What new revelation about the banks will break today? The question is no longer whether the big banks might have broken the law and cheated, causing enormous economic damage to Americans and the world. The evidence is clear that they did. The question now is what else, and more importantly, whether a weak-kneed U.S. President Obama has the courage to do anything but yelp about it.
To suggest that Wall Street is a criminal enterprise is unfair to thousands who work in U.S. finance. Most Wall Streeters get in early, eat at their desks getting eye strain from screens flashing green digits, and ride the subway home tired each night, fervently hoping their bosses didn’t do something that will cost them their jobs.