Does Wall Street Owe Main Street An Apology?

Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio summed up at today's Senate hearing the anger from tens of millions of Americans on the proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial sector. Wall Street, he argued, 'didn't care one bit' what its mortgage practices ″ the ones that created today's mess ″ were doing to neighborhoods in Cleveland and around the country.

Then came his interesting but odd question: Do you think Wall Street owes the American people an apology?

Mr. Brown didn't quite specify what the apology would do. Some Wall Street executives probably would be happy to offer one ″ in writing and on camera ″ in exchange for a $700 billion bailout.

But the question went to the heart of the trouble that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke face in selling the unprecedented emergency plan to Congress and the public over the course of a week.

Mr. Bernanke was a Princeton University economics professor before joining government earlier this decade (first as a Fed governor, then as a White House economic adviser, then as Fed chairman). Mr. Bernanke earlier noted that he was criticized upon taking the job for his lack of Wall Street ties. 'I've never worked on Wall Street,' he explained. 'I don't have those interests and those connections.' Mr. Bernanke sought to explain repeatedly that if credit markets don't function, jobs will be lost, houses will face foreclosure and the economy will contract.

Responding to Mr. Brown's question, Mr. Bernanke again said Main Street is tied to Wall Street through credit. 'Wall Street made a lot of mistakes and regulators made a lot of mistakes.' Under follow-up questioning again, Mr. Bernanke was forced to note that Wall Street 'is an abstraction' ″ a statement even more true this week after the two surviving independent investment banks converted into bank holding companies.

Mr. Paulson is from Wall Street, leading Goldman Sachs before joining the Bush administration.

'I share the outrage that people have,' he said. 'It's embarrassing to look at this. I think it's embarrassing for the United States of America. There is a lot of blame to go around' for irresponsible lending practices, overly complex securities and rating-agency failures.

'Let's fix the problem to have the least negative impact on them and then let's go out and deal with all these problems and figure out how to make sure that we minimize the likelihood they'll happen again,' Mr. Paulson said. Sudeep Reddy

在周三舉行的參議院聽證會上，俄亥俄州民主黨參議員謝羅德·布朗(Sherrod Brown)就美國財政部7,000億美元金融業(yè)救助計劃的一番表態(tài)也代表了很多美國人憤怒的心聲。他說，華爾街“根本不在乎”其在抵押貸款上的所作所為對美國民眾的影響。

隨后，他提出了一個有趣但又有點怪的問題：華爾街是否欠美國人一個道歉？

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俄亥俄州民主黨參議員謝羅德·布朗布朗沒有解釋華爾街具體應(yīng)如何道歉。部分華爾街人士也許會樂于用一個道歉（無論是書面的還是視頻的）換來7,000億美元的援助。

不過，美國財長鮑爾森(Henry Paulson)和美國聯(lián)邦儲備委員會(Fed)主席貝南克(Ben Bernanke)在向國會及公眾兜售這個史無前例的緊急救助計劃時，面對的其實就是這個問題。

在這個世紀(jì)初加入美國政府（先是擔(dān)任Fed理事、之后是白宮經(jīng)濟顧問，眼下是Fed主席）之前，貝南克曾經(jīng)是普林斯頓大學(xué)(Princeton University)的經(jīng)濟學(xué)教授。他此前曾指出，當(dāng)年在他出任Fed主席時，還曾因缺乏華爾街經(jīng)驗而受到批評。他解釋說：我從未在華爾街工作過，我在此沒有利益關(guān)系，也沒有那種千絲萬縷的聯(lián)系。貝南克想要反復(fù)闡明的是，如果信貸市場失靈，人們就要丟掉工作、房屋將陷入止贖、經(jīng)濟也將滑落。

針對布朗的問題，貝南克再次表態(tài)說，美國大眾通過信貸與華爾街聯(lián)系到了一起。華爾街犯了許多錯，監(jiān)管機構(gòu)也犯了許多錯。在回答與此有關(guān)的另一個問題時，貝南克不得不指出，華爾街是個“抽象的概念”，尤其是當(dāng)兩家幸存下來的獨立投行轉(zhuǎn)型成為銀行控股公司后，情況更是如此。

鮑爾森倒是來自華爾街，在加入布什政府前曾領(lǐng)導(dǎo)過高盛(Goldman Sachs)。

他說，我和大家一樣憤怒，發(fā)生這樣的事情令人難堪，也令整個美國感到難堪。很多人都在指責(zé)那些不負(fù)責(zé)任的放貸行為、過于復(fù)雜的證券產(chǎn)品和評級機構(gòu)的失職。

鮑爾森說，讓我們糾正問題，將其負(fù)面影響降低到最低。然后，讓我們處理所有這些問題，找到切實的解決之道，將今后發(fā)生此類事件的概率降至最低。