OP-ED by Paul Krugman, NYT 07/16/09 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/op...gman.html?_r=1

By PAUL KRUGMAN
  • Published: July 16, 2009
    The American economy remains in dire straits, with one worker in six unemployed or underemployed. Yet Goldman Sachs just reported record quarterly profits — and it’s preparing to hand out huge bonuses, comparable to what it was paying before the crisis. What does this contrast tell us?
  • First, it tells us that Goldman is very good at what it does. Unfortunately, what it does is bad for America.
  • Second, it shows that Wall Street’s bad habits — above all, the system of compensation that helped cause the financial crisis — have not gone away.
  • Third, it shows that by rescuing the financial system without reforming it, Washington has done nothing to protect us from a new crisis, and, in fact, has made another crisis more likely.
More at link.