Yes! ... and what I find particularly galling!

From Chris Hayes via Atrios over at Eschaton:

In the past decade, nearly every pillar institution in American society — whether it's General Motors, Congress, Wall Street, Major League Baseball, the Catholic Church or the mainstream media — has revealed itself to be corrupt, incompetent or both. And at the root of these failures are the people who run these institutions, the bright and industrious minds who occupy the commanding heights of our meritocratic order. In exchange for their power, status and remuneration, they are supposed to make sure everything operates smoothly. But after a cascade of scandals and catastrophes, that implicit social contract lies in ruins, replaced by mass skepticism, contempt and disillusionment.

Well, YES!... BUT - what I find particularly galling is the "defense" these titans offer when things go south:

Findings on Lehman Take Even Experts by Surprise
By MICHAEL J. de la MERCED, NYT
Published: March 12, 2010
... Patricia Hynes, a lawyer for [former Lehman Bros CEO] Mr. [Richard S.] Fuld, said on Thursday that her client “did not know what those transactions were — he didn’t structure or negotiate them, nor was he aware of their accounting treatment.”
[emphasis added]

"I just work here!"
Tell me again, what exactly was Mr. Fuld's job?
... and WHY was he getting paid many millions of dollars???

[For those of you old enough to remember the TV series Hogan's Heroes, I'll call this the "Sgt. Schultz defense":

"I SEE NOTHING, NOTHING!"

For what it's worth, this defense was pioneered by Ken Lay, Enron's CEO.]

A question: why do the bankruptcy examiner's findings "take even experts by surprise"???
Haven't the 'experts' read Enron???
- if not, I'd say they're NOT 'experts'!!!