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Villains Inc.: Looking For Villains Of Economy

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By TED ANTHONY

The Associated Press

Published: April 2, 2009

DEARBORN, Mich. - "The better the villain," Alfred Hitchcock said, "the better the movie." And in the epic production that is the United States of America, we have followed that advice since the earliest settlers landed. For every hero the American story factory produces, a vivid new villain comes off the assembly line in short order.

We love bad guys in America - even when they're not really bad. Demonizing helps define the best in us.

Now, in these jumbled days of economic uncertainty, fairly or unfairly, America's newest Snidely Whiplashes bear faces like those of corporate America.

BERNARD MADOFF

Money manager

The New York financier who crafted a massive Ponzi scheme has been vilified in the media, with one of the latest iterations being the March 2 cover of New York magazine, which doctored a picture of Madoff into the grinning, bloodshot-eyed Joker, the diabolical supervillain who delights in terrorizing Batman's Gotham City. "Bernie Madoff, Monster," the cover states.

CLAIM TO FAME: Madoff and his once-exclusive investment club were in many ways emblematic of the get-rich-quick ethos that defined the past decade and a half of a stratospheric stock market and booming home values.

THE LATEST: When he pleaded guilty to 11 criminal counts that could send the 70-year-old to prison for the rest of his life, Madoff offered the first explanation for his actions, saying he felt pressure to report good investment returns during the early 1990s recession.

RICK WAGONER

Former General Motors Corp. chairman and CEO

Wagoner was eviscerated by a congressional committee in November and lampooned on "Saturday Night Live" before he was forced out by the Obama administration during the weekend.

HITS: Cut GM's U.S. work force from 177,000 to roughly 92,000; closed factories; shed the unprofitable Oldsmobile brand; globalized GM's engineering, manufacturing and design to save billions.

MISSES: Critics, including many members of Congress, say Wagoner moved too slowly, failing to cut enough of the company's huge health care and pension costs and relying too long on high-profit pickup and sport utility vehicles as gas prices rose and the market shifted toward smaller vehicles.

RICHARD FULD

Former Lehman Bros. chief executive

In October, when the former CEO of the freshly bankrupted Lehman Bros., Richard Fuld, sat down before Congress, he promptly was informed by Florida Rep. John Mica: "If you haven't discovered your role, you're the villain today."

THE PROBLEM: Lehman, a once-powerful global investment bank, filed for bankruptcy protection in September after it failed to win a bailout from the federal government. Lehman's bankruptcy triggered a severe market downturn as the ramifications of the collapse of the company's huge and diversified portfolio rippled through the financial system.

AIG Executives

The insurer received four rounds of government loans totaling $180 billion because the government fears letting the global player fail will decimate much of the world's economy.

THE PROBLEM: Shortly after the last $30 billion was OK'd for AIG, news spread of $165 million in bonuses for employees who created and sold the risky financial instruments that largely were responsible for bringing the New York conglomerate to its knees and helping wreak havoc in world financial markets.

Information from The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times was used in this report.

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