I Did It Not For Myself, But For You

Brenda Rosser at Econospeak begins a series which exhumes the roots of the current global financial crisis. Amply sourced and throughly footnoted as it is, the actual prose is pellucid. It is tempting to call the perps pirates! as is my wont. Yet there is a distinct glimmer in events of earnest but flawed persons hoping to ride a whirlwind to the aid and benefit of, at least, their masters, but also as many others nearby as possible. The worst flaw, perhaps, was a compulsion to justify an action as beneficial to those damaged by it.

Statecraft's most carefully tended tool is dissembly.

--ml