white shirt, designer suit and tie

The Wall Street Journal had an article on white shirts the other day. In it they quoted fine gentlemen extolling the virtues of such cloth. According to said gentlemen one can learn a lot about a man from the whiteness and thickness of their shirts. Or the designer labels on their suits and the fine silk of their ties. 

The next day, one reader remarked this was certainly true, but that the conclusion was decidedly false. The wearers of these fine shirts, suits and ties hail from places such as Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and Madoff. What we can learn from these folks is that we should look past and through their finery, and keep our wits about us, lest we fall prey to their ignorance, grotesque egomania, deceit, and swindle.

Today Merrill announced a $15.3 billion loss for the most recent quarter. As one economist put it recently, these gentlemen took manure and convinced us it had turned into rose water. They then dispensed their concoction to the savvy and not-so-savvy alike. No doubt they were wearing their white shirts and fine ties to fully dissociate themselves from the color and stench of their product.