"Do you think Wall Street owes the American people an apology?"

It was the soundbite of the day earlier this week. On Monday and Tuesday the world watched breathlessly and angrily as the Senate Committee on Banking grilled the Fed Chair, Ben Bernanke, and Secretary of Treasury, Henry Paulson.

Against the weight of the political extravaganza, Bernanke patiently attempted to explain American economic history and Business 101 to a gaggle of self-aggrandizing politicians amid the clicking, clucking, and buzzing of the political press. On a desperate mission to save the US economy from collapse, the indefatigable Fed Chair pressed on through congressional willful ignorance and gratuitous disdain.

"Do you think Wall Street owes the American people an apology?" asked a grandstanding freshman senator.

An Aside: my immediate reaction (with my face changing color and fire rising in my eyes): "with all due respect, Senator Brown, do you ever wonder if the Senate of the United States owes the American people an apology?"

It is good that I am merely an obscure history teacher and an anonymous blogger. Rejoinders of that nature are not productive.

Bernanke, the Southern-born, Harvard- and MIT-educated gentle intellectual giant, responded with grace, explaining finally that "Wall Street" was something of an "abstraction."

Otherwise intelligent people have been asserting all week that the fat cats are to blame. If you actually believe in capitalism, they say, you must agree that heads need to roll, markets need to work, and we need to let the chips fall where they may. Who's at fault? George Bush and his corrupt business cronies. Or, Bill Clinton, big-government liberalism, and political correctness. Or, greedy mortgage bundlers on Wall Street. Or, deceptive lenders who forced people with bad credit into loans they had no intention of paying back while living in houses that they could not afford.

Bailout? "Not with my money you don't."

Here's the problem:

Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.


Who's in trouble? We are. Who's needs bailing out? We do. Who's to blame? We are. Who's going to save our asses in this moment of crisis? We are--if we can muster the good sense and stifle the self-righteous indignation.

First Step: stop pointing fingers. Our overall mess is seven decades in the making. We are a spoiled rotten bunch and a society too often unconnected to reality. "Wall Street" has done our bidding. Every mug on "Main Street" NOW can tell you how idiotic the mortgage derivatives were. Where were all these geniuses a few years ago when we were all slurping up our low-interest, no-questions-asked home loans? We could have used some of that 20-20 hindsight in real time.

An Aside: what often goes unsaid is that there were many more innovative financial mechanisms that worked as advertised. Innovation means taking chances. When things work everyone is happy. When they don't: get a rope.

More importantly, we need to face this reality: we did this to ourselves. Face up to our own complicity. We wanted it all (and still do).

Number Two:
come together, stop whining and blaming, and do the right thing. We can beat this crisis together. Right now we still have enough collective punch and stamina as a super power to overcome this mighty financial blow of our own making. Let's do it. Stop talking. Stop the CYA. Make the right deal.

Number Three:
Repent. This fix is not really a fix. It is only a stopgap. We can overcome this current crisis, but it is a fire bell in the night. It is a warning, which, if unheeded, signals the beginning of the end for us.

If we are actually to heal ourselves, we are going to need to change our ways. More conservation of resources. More self denial and less instant gratification. Fewer vacations. Older cars. More walking. Less gardeners, maids, and nannies. More reading. More church. More saving. Less fast food. More vegetables. Less TV. Fewer designer labels. Less NFL. More playing in the yard. More studying. Less drinking beer. More gardens. More respect. Less snark. More grace.