The Wall Street executives who tried to explain themselves to Congress this week showed a galling lack of personal accountability and major chutzpah.
One by one, disgraced CEOs such as Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers and Robert Willumstad of AIG pointed the blame for their firms' downfalls everywhere but where it belongs - on themselves. The greed and recklessness of these "titans" brought on the financial meltdown.
As they were testifying, the Dow plummeted hundreds of points per day, devastating retirement savings by $2 trillion in the last 15 months, not to mention eroding college funds for millions of people. Unlike Wall Street's financial wizards, ordinary investors won't have a golden parachute to soften the blow.
In at least some of Wall Street's risky investment schemes, it appears fraud was involved. A congressional panel found executives at insurance giant AIG hid some of its more risky financial products from auditors as the firm's losses mounted. One AIG auditor quit after he was blocked from asking how the company estimated its liabilities.
When it all came crashing down, the federal government stepped in last month with an $85 billion loan to buy an 80 percent stake in AIG. A week later, as if to celebrate their rescue by taxpayers, AIG executives spent $440,000 on a retreat at the swank St. Regis resort near Los Angeles, where they enjoyed pedicures and massages. Talk about tone deaf.
The potential fraud at the core of the mortgage crisis highlights the need for a comprehensive federal task force to investigate these matters. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said the Justice Department is conducting a broad review of the subprime lending mess to determine if there is a "larger criminal story."
A task force could help to streamline a multitude of criminal probes already under way, and prevent overlapping jurisdictions. For example, at least three U.S. attorneys' offices in New York and New Jersey are investigating whether Lehman Brothers misled investors about the firm's financial health before filing for bankruptcy.
The FBI is investigating mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as Lehman Brothers and AIG. At least 26 corporations are under investigation in the FBI's mortgage fraud inquiry. FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress last month that about 1,400 individuals were also under investigation - lenders, brokers and appraisers.
Another federal inquiry has concluded that the Securities and Exchange Commission should look into disciplining three top employees for possible interference in an investigation into insider trading.
Some Wall Street executives and banking chiefs apparently didn't learn anything from the Enron-era accounting scandals. Government regulations must be followed, but the integrity of the people at the helm is paramount. Executives looking for ways to deceive will usually find them.
Mukasey said he hasn't determined yet whether the current problems warrant the same kind of crackdown as in 2002, when the Bush administration targeted corporate fraud.
But this crisis is causing deeper financial pain for a broader swath of citizens than the accounting scandals did. The Justice Department needs to find out whether criminal laws were broken in Wall Street's zeal to land eight-figure bonuses.