Ms. Gretchen Morgenson, October 2010
"After the Deluge: How Washington, Wall Street and Main Street
Are Faring Post-economic Meltdown"

Ms. Gretchen Morgenson is the writer of a financial column in the New York Times.  She was the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of Wall Street after 2002.  Morgenson began by stating that the recent recession was heralded by a series of really dispiriting events in the Fall of 2008: the demise of Lehman Brothers, the A.I.G. rescue, the government takeover of "Fannie Mae" and "Freddy Mac."  The decline of stock market values was very visible evidence of the recession, but there were other less visible factors, such as the mortgage crisis.  Morgenson thinks that the nation is still in crisis.  According to Morgenson, we are slowly purging the debt accumulated in the early 2000s; another six years may be required to reach stability.  In 2009 11% of consumer debt (1.3 trillion dollars) was delinquent and 44 million people, 14.3% of the people, were living in poverty.  Wall Street and Washington thrive while Main Street suffers.  Why are the perpetrators not being taken to task and why have none gone to jail?  We are operating under these separate rules: 1. for citizens it is "tough love." 2. for institutions it is tax-free bailouts at public expense.  Washington is dysfunctional and Wall Street is scary, so Morgenson thinks the solution will come from "Main Street" in the form of hard work, selflessness and honor.  Some executives should be held accountable.  It will be criminal if the profiteers are allowed to "slink off."

President Ramsey, Gretchen Morgenson, and
Dean Hudson.