I HATE THESE PEOPLE

What kind of Bizarro World country could elect a lifelong screwup like George W. Bush president? A country in which the Masters of the Universe consider rewarding screwups perfectly reasonable:

UNDER the stewardship of Dow Kim and Thomas G. Maheras, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup built positions in subprime-related securities that led to $34 billion in write-downs last year. The debacle cost chief executives their jobs and brought two of the world's premier financial institutions to their knees.

In any other industry, Mr. Kim and Mr. Maheras would be pariahs. But in the looking-glass world of Wall Street, they -- and others like them -- are hot properties....

Mr. Maheras, who left his job as co-president of Citigroup's investment bank this fall after being demoted, has had serious discussions with several investment banks, including Bear Stearns, about taking on a top management position, people who have been briefed on the situation said. And he has also been approached by investment firms willing to back him to the tune of $1 billion or more if he decides to start his own hedge fund, these people said.

Mr. Kim, who until this spring was a co-president at Merrill Lynch with oversight of the firm's trading and market operations, has been crisscrossing the globe in recent months raising money for his new hedge fund, Diamond Lake Capital....

Poor Tom Maheras -- he'd like to wear sackcloth and ashes, but, darn it, they just won't let him!

Mr. Maheras has told friends that he feels horrible about the recent events....

"I wish I could turn back the clock," he has told peers. "But it happened on my watch."

He has said that he expects to take 6 to 12 months to weigh his next move. However, he has been courted by Wall Street firms, which may push him to take a new post sooner than he might have thought. Since leaving Citigroup, he has had conversations with chief executives at most of the large banks, people who have been briefed on his plans say. At Bear Stearns, the talks have centered on his heading the firm's trading operations, a job formerly held by the co-president, Warren Spector, who was pushed out last summer....

And what about the folks a bit lower on the ladder?

The quick comebacks of these executives stand in stark contrast to the plight of the hundreds of investment bankers who have received pink slips in the last two weeks. They also illuminate a peculiar aspect of Wall Street's own version of a class divide. Senior movers and shakers often land on their feet, no matter how egregious the losses tied to them. The industry rank and file, however, from mergers-and-acquisitions bankers at Bank of America to sales executives in Citigroup's hedge-fund servicing business, see their jobs eliminated despite being far removed from the subprime crisis.

(Of laid-off workers a bit lower down on the ladder, alas, we hear nothing.)

So why do the big kahunas keep getting rehired?

To some extent, it is personal: Mr. Kim and Mr. Maheras have a web of relationships with Wall Street's top executives. And many seasoned investors think that surviving such a crucible gives a person a degree of savoir faire and understanding of risk.

You know what really gives you an "understanding of risk"? ACTUALLY SUFFERING NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES WHEN YOU SCREW UP.

It's appalling. Ordinary people should be out in the street with pitchforks.