Let's Hear it For Weak Leaders!

This exchange, between blogger Barry Ritholtz and renowned investor Felix Zulauf, caught my eye:

Ritholtz: In the US, we only have politicians who tell people what they want to hear, and very few who say “Here’s some medicine, it’s going to be uncomfortable, but you got to suck it up because the alternative is far worse.”

Zulauf: That is the case everywhere, but I’m hoping that can change. It doesn’t change just by saying things. You get strong leaders only after a period of pain and hardship. You don’t get them in a world of high prosperity.

--The Big Picture blog

So, let's hear it for weak leaders.

The Lincoln's and Roosevelt's only appear when times are really tough.

Sacrificing the Body (Politic)??

Lincoln et al on Wall Street

"Often limb must be amputated to save a life; but life is never given to save a limb."

--Abraham Lincoln

In sustaining Wall Street while adulterating everything else about America, are we violating Lincoln's dictum?

What we should be doing now is isolating, minimizing, and ultimately replacing Wall Street and our current, dysfunctional financial system.

In the functioning, non-financial world, that's what happened after the 35W bridge collapsed in Minneapolis three years ago.

Instead, we're seemingly diverting all our (remaining) resources -- and then some! -- to saving our financial "limb."

As if there weren't enough bodies and debris already in the water?!?

Lincoln would have known better.

So would Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, et al.