Teddy Roosevelt - The Educated Man

Perhaps the most often quoted US President, Theodore Roosevelt -- the 26th man to hold the office (assuming we count Grover Cleveland twice!) -- did more to articulate the importance of character and courage in our nation's leaders. He was a man of varied interests, well-read and grounded. In his day, he was a progressive conservative. Among other things, he pushed for increased government regulation of business at a time when it was desperately needed. He defended the working man (at work), and the consumer (at the store). And he pushed for conservation of our nation's vast open spaces.

He believed in education, in reading the Bible, in getting daily exercise. And he understood the importance of character, integrity and doing the right thing -- especially for those in a position of leadership. He once said, "A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad." Teddy understood the way things worked.

More than a century after he left office, I worry that we have not heeded Teddy's warning. Having worked for a few years on Wall Street in the early 90's I witnessed firsthand the motivation and personal greed that leads men -- university educated men -- to look out for their own interests ahead of their fellow man. Today, US Treasury Secretary and former Head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, Tim Geithner, will still not acknowledge that the government's handling of the bailout of AIG unnecessarily poured more than $12 billion into the hands of Goldman Sachs. Why, when the faceless millions of taxpayers are being asked to bailout a huge financial institution, is Goldman Sachs NOT asked to take a "haircut" on their trades with AIG? Pundits now suggest that Goldman's insistence on being made whole by AIG prior to the bailout may have actually robbed the failing firm of desperately needed cash and accelerated that firm's rapid demise. In short, we the taxpayers are nameless and faceless, and in his haste to save the financial system -- something I will acknowledge he helped to do -- Geithner allowed Goldman to feel not an ounce of pain. How? He used "other people's money."

People who know me well have been listening to me rant about this injustice for weeks. But I don't think that Geithner is an entirely bad or sinister character here. I know he believes he did a great thing. In fact, he does deserve credit for rescuing a failing financial system. Under enormous pressure, he merely forgot about the rest of us. Had he forced Goldman and others to take 50 or 60 or even 70 cents on the dollar, he would have been thinking about those of us who actually pay taxes, something he failed to do -- more than once.

Let's hope that the boys and girls entering University today will become the women and men of character our country needs them to be tomorrow. I'm betting that they are up to it! Happy Presidents Day.

Keep on running.