The Urgency Conundrum: Battling Economic Forces While Building for the Future

In December 1862, President Abraham Lincoln wrote in his second annual message to Congress: "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so must we think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."

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The End with Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis first came to attention in 1989 with his best seller Liars Poker about his life as a bond saleman with Saloman Bros on Wall Street and their role in developing a market for mortguage bonds. An art historian with an economics degree from the London School of Economics, his writing has always been about identifying and exploring the emergence of trends and their implications - Moneyball, (baseball) the Next Next Thing (the internet); Next: The Future Just Happened (the digital world) and the Blind Side (American football) are all impeccibly researched and shine as works by a writer for an eye for the nuances of the history of business and markets. So it was a delight to catch from one of my Twitter followers (@ripkungler) a link to his latest article - the End.

At last, an essay that makes sense of the incomprehensibility of what has occurred on Wall Street and the role the investment banks and their leaders have played in this period of unmitigated greed and as Lewis says in play English - lying to themselves, their associates and anybody who was willing listen. I am sure this article will be the first of many exploring the circumstances we find ourselves in. However Lewis plain English  brings home the enormity of the fraud perpetrated by the investment bankers of Wall Street and their associates the rating agencies. Do yourself a favour and read the article and wonder how it could all happen.