February 16, 2009

Congratulations to Congress for stimulating America’s most innovative financial wizards at the economy’s greatest time of need. Thanks to an 11th-hour amendment to the stimulus bill in the Senate, the fiscal alchemists of Wall Street are mobilizing their forces en masse.

Unfortunately, their imminent objective will not be to fix the financial system and get the global economy moving again. Rather it will be to find ways around this misguided piece of populist legislation and pay back government funds prematurely — a decision that risks bringing the banking system back into panic mode.

Restrictions on the top five executives of firms that have or will receive government assistance aren’t the problem. After all, seasoned financial honchos like John J. Mack of Morgan Stanley are already loaded and, at this point, more concerned with securing agreeable places in history than adding a Ferrari to the garage.