Did Wall Street get drunk?

During a fun raising event on the 18th of July 2008, President Bush made a comment about Wall Street. President Bush in trying to explain the reason behind current global financial crisis said, ”There’s no question about it. Wall Street got drunk - that’s one of the reasons I asked you to turn off the TV cameras - it got drunk and now it’s got a hangover. The question is how long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments.” The presidents comment were captured on a video clip that was subsequently leaked on the Internet.

Did Wall Street get drunk? The word drunk immediately conveys a picture of alcohol consumption, so you have to delve deeper into the definition of drunk before agreeing or disagreeing with President Bush. I looked up the definition of drunk on dictionary.com and came up with 2 relevant definitions. 1) being in a temporary state in which one's physical and mental faculties are impaired by an excess of alcoholic drink; intoxicated: 2) overcome or dominated by a strong feeling or emotion: drunk with power; drunk with joy. Looking at the first definition, it’s not certain whether the powers that be on Wall Street had their mental faculties impaired by excess alcohol. However, they must have been dominated with a strong feeling of emotion. Yes they were dominated by the emotions of greed and power. In that sense, yes they were drunk!

The President’s comments were very lenient compared to the cover page of a November 2007 issue of Fortune magazine. (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/11/26/101232838/index.htm?postversion=2007111212), titled “What were they smoking?” I think they guys were on something a lot stronger than alcohol, as the effect their actions have spread across the globe.