Wall street titan should explain

Wall Street titan should explain what he does for a living - CNN.com Wall Street titan should explain what he does for a living
By Bob Greene, CNN Contributor
October 24, 2009 9:35 a.m. EDT
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* Bob Greene

Editor's note: CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a best selling author whose new book is "Late Edition: A Love Story."

(CNN) -- The national rage directed at Wall Street seems to be intensifying.

Many Americans struggle in vain to find work. Those fortunate enough to have jobs worry that their pay will be cut. The mortgage meltdown has cost families across the country their homes. No matter what financial experts may say about the recession coming to an end, too many people still feel like they're at the bottom of a deep well.

Yet Wall Street banks -- notably Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase -- are reporting spectacular profits. For them, it is as if the economic collapse last year was a little pothole that has long since disappeared in the rear-view mirror. They're zooming right along.

This month, Goldman announced that its profits in the last three months alone were $3 billion.

If the final quarter continues on this prosperous pace, Goldman's year-end bonus pool may exceed $20 billion, according to the New York Times -- enough to pay its 31,700 employees an average of $700,000.

That's the kind of news that many Americans may find difficult to swallow as a grim Christmas season arrives.

No wonder the anger at Wall Street is real and visceral.

But here is a modest proposal.

It has to do with Lloyd C. Blankfein, the chairman of Goldman Sachs.

Blankfein, it has been reported, may receive a year-end bonus that is even larger than the one he got two years ago.

Which is really saying something, seeing that his 2007 bonus was $67.9 million.

Here's the proposal:

Blankfein should go on television and make a public service announcement.

Not one of those 30-second ones that run late at night, promoting various worthy causes.

Blankfein should prepare a 30-minute announcement, to be delivered by him personally. He should buy time during the prime evening viewing hours on all the major networks.

He should look into the camera and, as a service to an irate country, answer one simple question:

"What exactly do you do for a living?"