The Best and the Brightest

The Best and the Brightest
By Jerome Grossman

The current financial crisis is widely perceived as the greatest threat to the stability of the USA. This threat was

• Not caused by radical Islamic terrorists

• Not by Colombian drug lords

• Not by organized crime

• Not by radical right-wingers

• Not by radical left wingers

• Not by inner-city street gangs

This crisis was created by the best and the brightest Americans

• Educated at our finest universities

• The elite of our society by virtue of talent and riches

• The leading donors to our most deserving charities

• With the blessing of government leaders of both parties

Am I playing the blame game? You bet I am. The best and the brightest profited with enormous salaries, the adoration of the media, the perks accruing to the leaders of society. But they have failed and must step aside for new leaders. David Halberstam warned us that the best and the brightest would fight displacement by blaming others and impersonal forces for their failures as they did in the fiascos of Vietnam and Iraq. We must not allow that to happen.