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

在周三举行的参议院听证会上，俄亥俄州民主党参议员谢罗德·布朗(Sherrod Brown)就美国财政部7,000亿美元金融业救助计划的一番表态也代表了很多美国人愤怒的心声。他说，华尔街“根本不在乎”其在抵押贷款上的所作所为对美国民众的影响。

随后，他提出了一个有趣但又有点怪的问题：华尔街是否欠美国人一个道歉？

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俄亥俄州民主党参议员谢罗德·布朗布朗没有解释华尔街具体应如何道歉。部分华尔街人士也许会乐于用一个道歉（无论是书面的还是视频的）换来7,000亿美元的援助。

不过，美国财长鲍尔森(Henry Paulson)和美国联邦储备委员会(Fed)主席贝南克(Ben Bernanke)在向国会及公众兜售这个史无前例的紧急救助计划时，面对的其实就是这个问题。

在这个世纪初加入美国政府（先是担任Fed理事、之后是白宫经济顾问，眼下是Fed主席）之前，贝南克曾经是普林斯顿大学(Princeton University)的经济学教授。他此前曾指出，当年在他出任Fed主席时，还曾因缺乏华尔街经验而受到批评。他解释说：我从未在华尔街工作过，我在此没有利益关系，也没有那种千丝万缕的联系。贝南克想要反复阐明的是，如果信贷市场失灵，人们就要丢掉工作、房屋将陷入止赎、经济也将滑落。

针对布朗的问题，贝南克再次表态说，美国大众通过信贷与华尔街联系到了一起。华尔街犯了许多错，监管机构也犯了许多错。在回答与此有关的另一个问题时，贝南克不得不指出，华尔街是个“抽象的概念”，尤其是当两家幸存下来的独立投行转型成为银行控股公司后，情况更是如此。

鲍尔森倒是来自华尔街，在加入布什政府前曾领导过高盛(Goldman Sachs)。

他说，我和大家一样愤怒，发生这样的事情令人难堪，也令整个美国感到难堪。很多人都在指责那些不负责任的放贷行为、过于复杂的证券产品和评级机构的失职。

鲍尔森说，让我们纠正问题，将其负面影响降低到最低。然后，让我们处理所有这些问题，找到切实的解决之道，将今后发生此类事件的概率降至最低。