Give Thanks We're Not Thanking Wall St.

Be grateful for new skepticism on financial industry
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 25, 2009 8:04 AM CST
Give Thanks We're Not Thanking Wall St.
NYSE Euronext market indicators are shown on a board on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.   (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

There won't be a lot of people thanking the financial industry this Thanksgiving, and that in and of itself may be cause to be thankful, writes Thomas Frank. There's been a shift in thinking and newly skeptical Americans no longer believe that the market is omniscient or that colossal Wall Street bonuses are good news for everybody, Frank writes in the Wall Street Journal.

"Maybe that prickly new mood is what I should be thankful for. We're reading headlines about Ponzi schemes and not instantly brushing them off as irrelevant buzzkill," Frank writes. Conservatives deserve some thanks, too, Frank writes, for while "the tea-party set may be groping toward the answers in entirely the wrong way," they are at least forcing the administration to explain and defend its actions, making sure it can't just coast through the next few elections offering clichés.
(More bank regulation stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X