Leonard Leech, the fictional law professor in Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, nicely explains the ethos of the deal.
"In every big transaction," he tells a student, "there is a magic moment during which a man has surrendered a treasure, and during which the man who is due to receive it has not yet done so. An alert lawyer will make that moment his own, possessing the treasure for a magic microsecond, taking a little of it, passing it on. If the man who is to receive the treasure is unused to wealth, has an inferiority complex and shapeless feelings of guilt, as most people do, the lawyer can often take as much as half the bundle, and still receive the recipient's blubbering thanks."
Reform doesn't mean ending deals. It means ending deals that work out better for the middleman than the customer.
For starters, that should involve applying the fiduciary standard to mortgage brokers and other financial agents. A fiduciary holds a solemn duty to stand in the shoes of the customer and "at all times place the interest of the client ahead of his or her own," according to ethical standards for Certified Financial Planners, which were adopted only last year.
Ending the culture of the deal means CEOs should hold long-term stakes in the health of their companies - even after they retire.
It's no coincidence that Wall Street executives ruined their firms only after they sold the ownership of what had been private partnerships to public shareholders. It wasn't their money any more.
Doctors and insurance companies need to have a long-term interest in their patients.
Medical reform and cutting costs will fail unless family physicians are paid more to prevent illness and surgeons don't get incentives to overbook the operating room. Minnesota's Mayo Clinic, where doctors get fixed salaries, is the model.
Too bad there's no fiduciary standard for Congress. Do unto future generations, senators and representatives, as if they were voting for you today.
Sustainability is best known as the environmentalist's motto. Of course, humans should end their one-night-stand with the planet and commit to reductions in carbon emissions and pollution.
But sustainability should be the watchword for all aspects of the economic recovery.
Donald Trump is back in bankruptcy proceedings. His casino company missed a $50 million interest payment in December and owes bondholders $1.7 billion. He's on his third wife.
Even he can't afford too many more of those kinds of deals. Neither can we.
