The New Language of Mea Culpa

"Disappointed" Political & Business Leaders

"Vikram Pandit, Citi’s chief executive, calls the latest earnings 'disappointing.'"
--Floyd Norris, "Living Blogging Bank Losses"; The New York Times (1/16/09)

I remember, in another era, when business or political leaders were cornered and had to acknowledge that they screwed up, they'd grudgingly allow that "mistakes were made" (exactly which ones, who committed them and how, were never identified).

For some reason, that vernacular has fallen out of favor and a new one has taken its place: the politics of "disappointment."

Wrong intelligence on Iraq? "Disappointing." Economic crash? "Disappointing." Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, Katrina and New Orleans, Valerie Plame's outing, SEC non-feasance (Barry Ritholtz's term), trillions in banking bailouts, spiking unemployment -- it's a VERY long list -- all, you guessed it . . "disappointing."

As Wall Street's leaders now divulge the latest round of horrific financial results, gird yourself for lots more use of a certain adjective.

Personally, what I find most disappointing of all is political and business leaders who don't see -- and won't acknowledge -- their own culpability.

Kicking Lereah When He's Down

David Lereah's Kind-of Mea Culpa

Though he's hardly a household name, David Lereah -- formerly the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors -- achieved not a little notoriety for writing the extremely ill-timed (2005), "Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom?"

For that, Lereah is forever assured a place in financial trivia Hell along with James ("Dow 36,000") Glassman and economist Irving Fisher ("stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau") -- that, just before the 1929 Stock Market Crash.

However, Lereah no more caused the real estate bubble than Glassman caused tech stocks to skyrocket or Fisher was behind the roaring '20's stock market.

Today's Wall Street Journal profiles Lereah with a half-tweak, half "where are they now" piece, Realtors' Former Top Economist Says Don't Blame the Messenger.

Given all the truly culpable actors in the housing and credit mess, piling on Lereah seems a little gratuitous.