Bush spokesman on CNBC: quit being mean to Wall Street

You can't even make this crap up. Of course the US needs Wall Street to be functioning properly. We've all said this a million times. The problem, again, is that Wall Street never learns any lessons and now the Geithner continues the Paulson plan few people other than Republicans like Fratto see any change. The public is furious and is expecting to see signs that yes, Wall Street gets it. To date, it hasn't happened. Worse still is that Geithner and by default Obama don't get it either.

And now for Tony Fratto, as only he can deliver on CNBC:

I know they've embarrassed us. I know they've been bad. I know they need to be taught a lesson. The costs have been staggering and will be for some time. But it's time for us to be good parents. It's time to remember that we love our banks and we love our markets.

I'm fearing we're losing sight of the enormous benefit the financial sector has meant to the historic success of the American economy and our resulting high standards of living.

For all of its sins of greed and recurring bouts of recklessness and excess, Wall Street (and I use the reference with affection) has built the largest, most effective and efficient system for allocating capital and risk in the history of mankind. This means that ideas in America find financing — with counterparties sharing the best risk-adjusted rates of return. And this is a virtue.

Sorry to break the news, but Wall Street lost the plot a long time ago. There is no virtue in bankrupting a country and a global economy. That's fraudulent and people need to be prosecuted and sent to jail. Fraud still is a crime with Republicans, isn't it?