Andrew Sullivan Rails on the World Economic Forum

What's stunning to me, and instructive, is the distinction Tom Friedman makes today between what he calls "sustainable values" and "situational values".  I think that distinction is too kind to the bankers. What he means is what human beings used to call - before "values" replaced "virtues" - good and evil.

I have no doubt there are many good men and women working in the banking sector. But the system is so corroded with vice, with selfishness, and, most importantly, with contempt for the common good, it needs real reform. I like what Obama has proposed and what the chairman of the Bank of England is now endorsing. I think the bailouts were necessary, just as I think the stimulus was necessary. But passing the toughest financial regulation bill we can at this point seems to me to be an urgent priority. The diffuse anger out there is a function of this deep sense of injustice - and it's correct.