The New York Times on the Eliot Spitzer affair:
As news that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been linked to a prostitution ring swept Wall Street Monday afternoon, the reaction can be described in one word: schadenfreude.The cause? Mr. Spitzer, for years the state’s attorney general, had served as the scourge of the Street, meting out punishment for a litany of sins like the Furies of mythology. Armed with the Martin Act, Mr. Spitzer took on investment banks, insurance companies and the New York Stock Exchange for their transgressions, giving other attorneys general a model for assuming the Mr. Clean mantle.
On CNBC, markets reporter Bob Pisani quoted an unnamed trader’s reaction, which spoke for the vast majority on Wall Street. “There is a God,” the trader was quoted as saying.
In case anyone need reminding, he's the sort of fellow who should never hold any sort on elected office. The US economy will do much better without him.
I can't think of a single Democrat of any consequence who ever lost his job over a morals rap.
Morals and ethics: When you have none, you can't be held to them.
Maybe, but this is a criminal rap.
True enough. In NY, and probably in DC as well, soliciting a prostitute is a misdemeanor. Spitzers career was made prosecuting financial folks for moving money around in a manner not to his liking. He seldom actually won a case, usually getting a settlement in return for not prosecuting further. Thus, imagine an employee at a bank noting exactly the type of money transfer that Spitzer was so hard over on, coming from "Mr. Clean" himself. Imagine further that the aforementioned transfer went over a state line. Notifying the FBI is now a moral imperative, as one would not want Mr. Spitzer naming the banker as a co-conspirator, now would one?
Payback's a bitch, huh, Elliot?
The stats are staggering, the stakes are generally massive, it is challenging to discuss and even tougher to do something about it. Technology, therapy, communicating... all of them compete with human nature. And also every circumstance is different.