Friday brought us two equally insightful analyses of the current financial meltdown.
The broad picture analysis was provided by al Qaida’s Chief Economic Affairs Analyst, Ayman al-Zawahiri:
Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader appeared in a new video posted Friday calling on Americans to embrace Islam to overcome the financial meltdown, which he said was a consequence of the Sept. 11 attacks and militant strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
[...]
Appearing in a white turban and robe, Zawahri discussed the roots of the U.S. economic crisis. He said it was a repercussion of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, and that the crisis would continue “as long as the foolish American policy of wading in Muslim blood continues.”
[...]
Zawahri then called on the American people to “embrace Islam to live a life free of greed, exploitation and forbidden wealth.”
Citicorp insiders Robert Rubin and Vikram Pandit complemented that with separate but equally frank examinations of the causes of Citigroup’s collapse.
Former U.S. Treasury secretary Robert Rubin said the near-collapse of Citigroup Inc, where he is a senior counselor, was due to the buckling financial system and not his own mistakes, according to an interview published on The Wall Street Journal‘s website on Friday.
Rubin, who is also a director at Citigroup, acknowledged he was involved in a board decision to ramp up risk-taking in 2004 and 2005, according to the paper, and said if executives had executed the plan properly, the bank’s losses would have been less.
The Journal said Rubin has earned $115 million in pay since 1999, excluding stock options.
“I bet there’s not a single year where I couldn’t have gone somewhere else and made more,” said Rubin, according to the Journal.
Rubin generously allowed that “the Citigroup board could bear some responsibility”. As long as it’s not too much, presumably. Note how he couldn’t even bring himself to say “the Citigroup board bears some responsibility”. Even after the “some”, he felt compelled to stick in the “could”.
You know what, you and I could bear some responsibility too. We don’t, but we could. In an alternate universe. If we were not only stupid enough to run Citigroup into the ground (nothing wrong with that, as long as Uncle Hank is wearing his Uncle Sam suit) but also stupid enough to believe in accepting responsibility for our actions.
The former Treasury secretary also gave his support to Citigroup chief executive Vikram Pandit.
He would. Because Pandit has publicly embraced the “no mistakes were made, nobody is to blame” theory of things:
Mr. Rubin’s effort to salvage his reputation comes just after Chief Executive Vikram Pandit appeared on PBS‘s Charlie Rose show. Mr. Pandit, too, blamed the overall financial crisis, not Citigroup, for the problems that led the government to decide to inject money into the bank for a second time this fall.
“This was something that was bigger than Citi,” Mr. Pandit said. “It was about confidence in the financial system. It was about stability of the financial system.”
So there you have it, folks. Citigroup was walking along the street. Not just innocently, but with prudent caution, and due diligence too. And it just happened to fall into an open manhole. Nobody’s fault at all. Certainly not the cartoons running things at Citigroup. If anyone is to blame, it would have to be the cartoonist, wouldn’t it?