Oh dear, here we go again: “Wall Street is a meritocracy, for the most part,” an irate but of course unnamed onetime Citigroup executive confides to junior father confessor Gabriel Sherman in this week’s hallucinatory New York magazine cover story, “The Emasculation of Wall Street.” “If someone has a bonus, it’s because they’ve created value for their institution.”

In the jumpy, suggestible universe of Gabe Sherman, Wall Street sleuth, things really are that simple: The beleaguered financial overclass creates value, in a rationally ordered system of maximally awarded talent. And the clueless public sector, intoxicated on post-meltdown regulatory prerogative, meddles with the primal forces of nature, skews executive [...]

Because it's winter or something, I've been spending (too much of) my time these days going back to first principles. Like: why are there sidewalks? Why do we like bread so much? Why did some buildings in New York get torn down and why not others? What is the deal with cats getting domesticated? So this pullback on assumptions, by James Kwak, about how humans get paid, in a discussion about Goldman Sachs bonuses, is striking: "Investment bankers are overpaid. Now, before all the bankers get all indignant on me, let me say that bankers should make more money than average people, at least according to the normal [...]

Dear Tubby.

I'm sorry I told you I was a banker.