The American capitalist, in a nutshell.

{via Flickr}

Watch Frontline, "Breaking The Bank" (via PBS)

WHY?: The psychology of the American capitalist is summed up in one quote from former Bank Of America/Nations Bank CEO Hugh McColl: "You can't hold what you have. That doesn't work in business." It reveals that, fundementally, what we are dealing with is the concept of extreme discontent. Extreme, because discontent is healthy to a degree -- take this Thomas Edison quote my friend shared with me the other day.

But unleashed with only incentive to become more extreme, discontent ruins lives as it transforms into that monster called greed (or lust). So to the Edison quote I say, put Albert Einstein in a room with Thomas Edison and Edison might get schooled on some of life's deeper lessons from a man, in Einstein, who learned first hand that ambition needs a limit to prevent destruction. Einstein died regretful of letting his ambition get out of hand and contribute to one of the most destructive devices ever invented -- the atomic bomb. Unfortunately, history seems to illustrate that if ambition makes the mistake of being naive, it can (and will) be easily manipulated. Perhaps that's the most fascinating aspect of this entire bank collapse -- the manipulation of simple ambition. I'm sure Einstein could tell us a bit about that scenario as well.