It's the many great leaders that end up transforming lives and countries, and so the tragedy of overcompensation in the finance industry is how it has attracted-away the world's smartest and most charismatic. Now these elite college grads hang out with each other instead of mentoring, inspiring, and setting an example for others. Instead of leading teams to accomplish great things, they are figuring out how best to fool the next guy.

Large-scale prosperity is far more likely when more America's smartest and most charismatic are leading instead of wheeling-and-dealing. Decline was inevitable as soon as high-finance ceased being the province of the boring and bookish.