The Media Drops to Its Knees for Ex-Bankers

Over a year ago, David Wessel wondered aloud in the Wall Street Journal if the financial meltdown might suggest that "the brainpower drawn to Wall Street would have been more productively employed elsewhere in the economy."

His snide conclusion: "It looks like many of those folks will get the chance to find out if that is so."

Fifteen months later, Wessel's prediction has come true; and, thanks to the New York media, we've been taken along for the ride. If the media has been quick to villainize the fallen kings of Wall Street — New York magazine crowned Dick Fuld the "true villain," only to be replaced by "new villain," John Thain — reporters have just as swiftly glorified the middle-tier pawns who Wessel denounced (i.e. the Harvard grads who, in the last decade, flocked to investment banking jobs).

For those of us who never cared much for investment bankers — and if anything, after the last year, have grown to revile them — the peculiar portraits of failed financiers are an unlooked-for brand of voyeurism (er, journalism).

"Beautiful Banker Yields Interest," headlines the New York Observer (to whom, they don't say), in a profile of former banker David Webb, "a model citizen of the post-crash era." Webb's story, if you read between the aggrandized lines, is typical i-banker: Ivy League education, job at Goldman Sachs, promoted to associate, canned after financial crisis, travels to Buenos Aires for soul-searching, returns jobless.

But for the Observer's Spencer Morgan, it's a veritable bildungsroman: the callow youth deflowered twice — first at boarding school, and then again after graduating Dartmouth, by a tattooed seductrix in New York ("When it was done she got dressed," Morgan writes. "He had never done anything like that"). From there, Webb gets mixed up in a Polish tennis league in Brooklyn (think O'Neill's Netherland with hair gel), only to be banned for playing "half-drunk." Then there's the Merlin-like encounter with a Columbia prof at Whole Foods, something about philosophy...

Curiously, although it's admitted that Webb was unceremoniously laid off by Goldman, by the end of the article, it's made to seem as if Webb has quit. "He's sort of the one black sheep," says a friend. "He beat the system — he made a lot of money and got out." As Morgan bafflingly concludes: "Last summer, Mr. Webb was promoted to an associate position at Goldman. This, it seems, was as far as Mr. Webb had intended to climb." All evidence to the contrary, it was as far as Goldman had intended Mr. Webb to climb.

Lest we prolong Webb's fifteen minutes, let's look back in time to the "Age of Riches," a series the New York Times started in 2007. The first article profiled Sandy Weill, who said of the new Gilded Age: "People can look at the last 25 years and say this is an incredibly unique period of time. We didn't rely on somebody else to build what we built, and we shouldn't rely on somebody else to provide all the services our society needs."

Enter Bernie Madoff as the first footnote, and Barack Obama as the second.

In retrospect, the most laughable of the series was printed in September 2007: "Bye, Bye B-School," the story of young bankers denouncing business school as a waste of their precious time. One analyst — immortalized here in all his glory — said he concluded that "an M.B.A. is a waste of money and time--time that could be spent making money." In his words, "There's no way that I would consider it."

But even as the Times and others were lionizing these schlubs, the man who gave a name to their ilk — Tom Wolfe and his Masters of the Universe — knew that investment banking had become a philistine shell of what it once was. As he wrote in late 2008, "It may dash your hopes for that nice warm feeling called Schadenfreude, but the Masters of the Universe are smarter than the people they left behind at the investment banks." Most of the heavy-hitters (who by now have been similarly vanquished) had gone to Greenwich to run hedge funds.

These bankers neglected the common good, they eschewed schooling, they worshipped psychopaths (1, 2), and they brought the country to its knees. Their watchword was "balling out"; now ours is "bailing out."

Why, oh why, are we romanticizing their fall?

Look no further than the would-be trophy wives of Dating a Banker Anonymous, profiled in the Times for the "seemingly endless stream of disparaging remarks and shaking heads" they endure for dating F.B.F.'s (aka, Financial-Guy Boyfriends). There's nothing interesting — or even romantic — about these women, who confess that even their sex lives are not so seamy. "It gets relegated to the weekends," or not at all, they say. (And of course the gals proved to be even less newsworthy after their support group was revealed to be a hoax).

Then there's the Washington Post on a fired banker who celebrated Carnival in Brazil as part of a "year-long world journey" that has thus far included snowboarding in the Alps and golf in Florida, and will later take him to the Amazon, Antarctica, Australia "and beyond."

Or the Times on former bankers trying their hand at creative jobs. Among those profiled are a former Goldman employee writing a screenplay (what he calls a "backup plan"), another fired banker starting a novel ("It's been euphoric," he says), and a Deutsche Bank employee who left to pursue a career in comedy. One might almost see the silver lining here, or what Wall Street Journal calls the "upside of being downsized."

For so many years, financial types from Madoff down proclaimed to be doing something, when in fact they were doing nothing. And now that they're actually doing nothing, the media thinks that's something.

The current financial crisis was precipitated, in part, by complications arising from the accounting principle known as mark-to-market: in layman's terms, the requirement that banks value an asset based on its current market price, and not its perceived value. It's telling that in his new career as a male model, David Webb has to date earned $200.

Follow Rob Fishman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rbfishman

Comments

[PhilipTaylor]

Why Hasn't the Media, the President, or Congress identified clearly the "TRUE REASONS" for this crisis, a detailed list of the corrupt practices of the Big Wall Street Banks?

Why, instead, are politicians pointing fingers at people who were TRICKED into "SURE FAIL" mortgages implying it was simply greed on the part of the home buyer, when it was Banker Greed and treachery?

Why is the "Bail-out concept" that we the taxpayers give Banks money so that they can turn around and LEND it back to us @ INTEREST, but only to those the Bankers feel are trustworthy!

Why not eliminate SEVEN BOTTLENECKS to Credit Flows or Loans by having a High Tech Government Internet Bank loan directly to Taxpayers who qualify on-line at "FAIR RATES and FEES"?

Why NOT let the Big Wall Street Banks "Deeply in Debt and Deeply Corrupt" go bankrupt and help the Community Banks that try to lend to the people?

[captainindustry]

Phillip!!! Great POST!!!!!!

I ALMOST got one of those mortgages... My LICENSED BY THE STATE real estate agent all but guaranteed me that this 120k house was going to 160k in less than 2 years.

He even hinted with a slight wink that I could walk away from the closing with 5k in my pocket.

[mountainweb]

Yes, the media may be dropping to their knees to worship the ex-banker and the CURRENT banks who may soon be EX, but they are not alone, it appears that more than a few democratic congressmen and senators are there with them trying to protect them. And Obama thought that all he had to worry about was republicans!

[nolabels]

Good job viciously attacking extreme outliers to make ugly assertions about scores of people. You know nothing about banking, bankers and the integral role in our society they play. As one of the bankers that is moving on to another career path, I am incredibly insulted that you would challenge my depth, intellect and ability to live a meaningful­/productiv­e life in one small essay.

I am going to law school to make sure that government regulations are meaningful and responsible so that similar abuses as those which took place during my time in banking are not repeated.

My best friend left banking to work for Americorp and will shortly be attending business school to learn how to manage or consult for clean energy businesses.

My friend and I are not alone and don't appreciate you calling all of us Bernie Madoffs and in the same breath indicating that the Bernie Madoffs (fund managers) where the only ones with brains.

[Ironquill]

Traditionally bankers both played integral roles and played by rules. Then things changed. Capital was leveraged insanely and then leveraged again with credit guarantees. I am the owner of a small green technology company and I know first hand the difficulty of getting bank credit. The situation has grown quite severe, thanks to the masters of the universe who squandered our financial assets.
The writer has accurately described the awe in which financial players have been held, which is odd in view of the fact that these players nearly brought down our world wide economic system.
However, I applaud you and your friend as people who want to help correct the system, in regulation, and in the need to have clean energy businesses. Perhaps your lives will be examples of something good which came out of this mess.

[jeanruss]

This is why newspaper are in trouble. They no longer give the public what is really going on. They don't "break" stories anymore. If they were still providing thetruth about what is really happening and prevent catastrophies, they would fly off the shelves. Today, newspapers just repeat the corporate owned media drivel. You don't need to pay extra for that.

[daddysboy]

All the careers you mentioned here are for the most part based on gaining special knowledge and using it to profit off of those without it. I put my money in the system trusting that it will be invested in a way that nets me a little profit (for pony-ing up the money, but not knowing what to do with it) and nets the bank a lot of profit (for knowing what to do with it). These are privileged positions in society and as such we hold the people that choose these jobs to a higher moral standard as we should. The fact that many of these people took that special knowledge and used it against our entire system to the detriment of everyone warrants some negative commentary to say the least. That you seem to be personally insulted and apparently surprised by it is almost hilarious. Congratulations on your decision to move on, but why not move on to a career in which you do actual labor?

[bellamag46]

Nice bit of satire, this. Clearly you and your friends continue to be smarter and more moral than the rest of us.

[billw8017]

When things were up, we rejoiced for knowing we had busted the scheme of the world and things would now be up forever. The economic collapse taught us better. Now, we know things will never get better, the natural lot of the world is broad misery, the best we can hope for is that things will stop getting worse in a couple years. It's nice to know our prophets know how to project a line.

[Ironquill]

YES, the value of toxic assets has nothing to do with our problems. We need to mark the CEO's and bankers to market before we can begin to work our way out of this mess.

Why for forty years did we monumentally defer to average intellects who by an Ivy League route, family connections, or Brooks Brotherrs tassle loafers landed in the N.Y banks and Investment banks? The reign of these so called masters of the universe can't be called individualism or even entrepreneurism. It's insider-ism, favoritism--like indulging adolescents--here, take your inheritance early and flaunt it.
With this cast of characters in the lead we have allowed the financial institutions and corporations to pick all the low hanging fruit and then squeeze the last drop of blood from the middle class. This wasn't hard work, but you had to have had the entitlement to do it. It's as if we are starting over again, from the sixties.
And our greatest achievment was electing George Bush, adolescent and juvenile delinquent in chief, to preside over the final disintegration of the family checking account. We have only ourselves to blame for the existence of a Bush II presidency.
We had the blinders on, and I don't know the reason why.
Tom Wolfe described it.
But explain it.
I can't.

[meinokea]

impeach Obama Now
The FDIC is going broke
Remove him before he distroys our country

[Alvin4NY]

funny...

[justkeepswimming]

The way the events of the last few years have profoundly justified my most deeply held beliefs and difficult life choices, I almost expect ex-boyfriends to start walking through the door to tell me they were wrong and I'm really the love of their life.

Naw, this is reality. But it's great reality.

[tomas0808]

At some point, all wealth is tied to real physical resources of some kind. There is a finite amount. So when someone gets rich here, it means that countless others elsewhere live in abject poverty. This is the truth they don't want you to know, and also why they had to resort to creating all these financial instruments out of this air that have no basis in reality

[windchimes]

Seems to me these masters of mass destruction have been carefully strategizing to implode infastructures from within. We keep thinking, there are not enough jobs. They keep thinking there are just too many people. So they collectively pillage the people essentially taking away their future and then coordinate a good old fashioned war and get the head count down to a more sustainable level.

History repeats. War = lack of resources. Men have become no more illuminated with time.

[Buzz-Cuz]

It`s programs like CNBC`s that should be held to task, for their daily salavations over the CEO`s of companies who because of their GREED , has brought our economy to it`s knees....... Rick Santelli, Charlie Gasperino, Larry Kudlow, Millissa Francis, and the rest of that over paid bunch of "wall street " water carriers should be BOOTED off the PUBLIC AIR-WAVES ......
Jon Stewart got it just right on his " Daily Show " on wednesday night, about a continuing series of bad advice and lack of truth in their reporting. They are just " HACKS "...... SANTELLI is a COWARD for not having the guts to appear on Stewarts show,...... Santelli knew he would be taken to task, and called out on his " RANT " about the " Losers " statement, concerning " American Homeowners " who because of no fault of their own, are losing,or about to lose their homes, and possibly their jobs.........
SANTELLI IS A COWARD!!!!

[ProfessorDuh]

The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
-- Marcus Aurelius

[retrorio]

Thanks for bringing out a point which has not been made much. These arrogant, incompetent, self-entitled Wall Street "whiz kids" should not be viewed sympathetically. They are part of the problem, and their greed, lack of ethics, and recklessness helped create the mess we're all in. The government should put a freeze on their bank accounts until an investigation is done.

[flatus]

It is a scary situation when the thieves are left in charge because they are apparently irreplaceable.

[Bocababs]

This is how I see it. If you are going to tell the President to get more optimistic, then you trott out Jim Cramer, Rick Santelli, Larry Kudlow, et al....to pummel Obama and his policies for fixing the Economy day after day, after day, and believe I watch them just to see what they are saying....then how the hay are you going to turn the very people who watch your show into investors again?

I will tell you how much I know about Wall Street....the single burning issue with them is raising their taxes. That is what this is all about.....and when I worked for the Obama Campaign...catch phrases like we are putting your taxes back to 1997 levels under Clinton....just did NOT catch on.

Wall Street caused their own downfall, and they sit there, day after day, like a bunch of 11 year olds in the school yard at Middle School Recess. It's not helping the situation.­...CNBC!!!

[SurrealPumpkin]

Just wait until tax rates reach 1950 levels. Of course, it won't be Wall Street irresponsibility that's the cause. Oh, no.

[bloity]

Good job Rob. As a layperson who follows the news and politics and business, I've been saying for years that most CEOs and corporations should just put on masks and hold up a gun for their limitless ways of getting money out of us either as consumers or employees. If you're not a shareholder, you will be taken. And I've watched the financial world become a big growth industry which tells me that there is a ton of money to be made in investing and advising to be able to support so many. I just hope the middle class keeps demanding real wages and accountability and ethical behavior from the current and future CEOs, Wall Street and politicians, and that our needs will come first ahead of the shareholders and the greed of the few at the top..

[Twayn]

"One lawyer with his briefcase can steal more money than a hundred men with guns."
- Vito Corleone