by John Tamny of Forbes
Every period of so-called economic excess invariably ends with the media and politicians discrediting the symbols of the alleged greed that characterized the era. Michael Milken and other innovative financiers from outside the clubby world of Wall Street were castrated at the end of the Reagan ’80s. The late Ken Lay–of Enron fame–saw his reputation destroyed after the ’90s Clinton boom, along with Tyco’s Dennis Kozlowski and Worldcom’s Bernie Ebbers.
This time around, after the relatively mild and certainly overrated “Bush Boom,” Wall Street will likely take the lion’s share of the blame for the uncertain economy. Popular history will say that Wall Street “overconsumed” when it came to risk and that the result was a near collapse of the world’s financial system. Yet this was not the case.
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