Pride, greed goeth before a fall

October 27th, 2008 at 06:31pm Annette LaCross

Published Sept. 22:

For the sake of argument, let’s assume you don’t vote.

There are millions upon millions of people who don’t. Those who do? Usually about 25 percent of the population. Thirty percent to maybe 40 percent when it’s a presidential election.

So I feel fairly safe in assuming that at least one of you doesn’t.

But I’ve finally found the reason you should — the proof you need that your vote, in fact, counts. I’ve actually uncovered several billion reasons.

Once again, may I introduce Wall Street.

The brain trust of the country’s beleaguered financial markets is learning a harsh lesson this year. (Well, no. They’re probably not, in point of fact, actually learning anything.)

But we can, even if they never do. And that’s our real, fundamental importance to this country. And best of all, it doesn’t rely on lofty and noble rhetoric.

No high-minded blathering about how precious is the right to vote, how it involves things like duty, privilege and right. About treasuring your freedoms and the republic in which you live. Which, in the interest of full disclosure, I believe.

None of the dithering about how one vote — yours, presumably — can change the outcome of an election.

No, this is about what happens when hundreds of thousands of us start talking with our pocketbooks. Or, more precisely, stop talking with pocketbooks.

Like, for example, when we walk away from mortgage payments we really couldn’t afford in the first place.

I think we sent Wall Street one heck of a message, even if it appears to be a law of unintended consequences.

As of this writing, several of the country’s most storied financial institutions were either remembering their humiliating falls, actually falling, planning their downfalls or still able to work feverishly to avoid it.

In order, just in case you haven’t been keeping a list: Countrywide Mortgage. Bear Stearns & Cos. Fannie Mae, or the Federal National Mortgage Association. Freddie Mac, or the Federal Home Mortgage Corp. Lehman Brothers Holding Inc. Merrill Lynch & Co. American International Group. Washington Mutual. Goldman Sachs.

Titans of business all. At least, they used to be.

They thought they were being smart, packaging the never-ending stream of home mortgages into complex instruments they could trade. They thought they were being resourceful, creating previously unknown and largely irresponsible mortgage options.

Wall Street’s inability or unwillingness to foresee the storm took them the rest of the way, and their desperate attempts to right their ships came far too late.

By the time they really bothered to notice the danger, the tiny wave in the middle of the ocean had grown to monstrous proportions and, in the end, swamped their unsinkable ships.

But make no mistake. Greed, with a healthy dose of Wall Street flimflamming mixed in, actually created their troubles, but the humble American taxpayer made it all possible.

Imagine the chaos in the political world if everyone who defaulted on their mortgages exercised their right to vote this year. Talk about sending a message.

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