Donald Trump published The Art of the Deal in 1989, right before heading into bankruptcy court.
But the Age of the Deal really started years earlier. Maybe it was in 1987, when Michael Milken made more than half a billion dollars on junk bonds. It could have been 1983, when William Agee unfurled one of the first golden parachutes after selling Bendix to Allied-Signal.
Or how about 1980, when the American Medical Association removed its ban on kickbacks - oops, I mean "referral fees" - paid to doctors? Or when the Supreme Court allowed lawyers to advertise, in 1977? Or when actor Rod Steiger turned an act of love into a court case by making his fiancee sign an early prenuptial contract, in 1973?
If there is any overarching goal for President Barack Obama and Congress as they face economic and fiscal disaster, it should be to end the Age of the Deal.
Let's inaugurate the Age of the Sustainable Relationship.
Whether we're interacting with a banker, a CEO, a doctor, a car dealer or a politician, we need to be able to see him or her the morning after and agree it was good for both of us.
The Age of the Deal hit bottom when trillions in mortgages turned to poison for borrowers and lenders alike. The emphasis was on getting the loan, closing the sale, packaging the mortgage and signing the line, each of which generated huge fees and profits.
But nobody focused on what might happen later.
Reform and regret will fix the mortgage problem, at least for a while. Home buyers lacking income or down payments won't qualify for credit. Bond buyers will look twice at the wares. Regulation will keep derivatives from blowing up global finance.
But that won't end the Age of the Deal. America is still bullish on short-term advantage and bearish on long-term benefits.
Executive-pay arrangements give bosses incentives to risk the company for evanescent, bonus-boosting profits. Congress focuses on earmarks and re-election even as the federal debt that will fall on our grandchildren approaches $12 trillion.
"Fee-only" financial planners - who don't receive commissions to sell junk you may not want - are probably still a minority in the profession.
Doctors and hospitals are paid not according to how healthy they make people but according to how many procedures they perform. Likewise, lawyers make more from writing briefs and taking depositions than keeping clients out of court.
