An Unfamiliar (Economic) Game

Wall Street has become addicted to taking enormous risks and sticking taxpayers with the bill. As a result, financial panics are causing real recessions and returning us to the 19th century.

Howard Gleckman | April 3, 2008

When a young Jack Nicklaus won the 1965 Master's Tournament, golf legend Bobby Jones said Nicklaus was "playing a game with which I am not familiar." I have the same feeling about today's financial markets.

This is not capitalism as I learned it. Rather, for the past three decades financial engineers have been playing a game with unlimited upside reward and, thanks to the Federal Reserve and the White House, limited downside risk.