Question: How do you make people on Wall Street laugh? Answer: Ask them if Jesus Christ is Lord of finance! Those who don't give you a blank stare or look of horror will probably respond with a chuckle.

Such are the times in which we live. Financiers, with novelist Tom Wolfe's bond salesman, Sherman McCoy (Bonfire of the Vanities), would use debt to gain power rather than foster wealth creation (the production of actual goods and services). By clever dealing they would sweep away all limits to become "Masters of the Universe."