Northern Trust vs. Captain Sully

In our American Studies class, we are discussing the history of the Progressive Era and the differences between the privileged and impoverished. But this week two important news stories revealed a real-life parallel to early 20th century America. In one case, Northern Trust Corporation, a Chicago-based bank, recently became one of many banks to misuse the money trusted to them by the government in the $700 billion bailout-bill. Money given to the banks, in Northern Trust’s case $1.6 billion, was supposed to help people secure loans and mortgages from the banks again after the economic meltdown. But Northern Trust decided to dedicate their share to a much more noble cause than the American consumer: the Professional Golfer’s Association.

This past weekend in Los Angeles, the Chicago bank hosted the Northern Trust Open, a PGA golf tournament. According to a New York Times article, the bank “treated clients to four days of posh hotel rooms, salmon and filet mignon dinners, music concerts, access to the Riviera Country Club with Mercedes shuttle rides and Tiffany swag bags.” Northern Trust seems to have forgotten the fact they recently laid off more than 500 employees just to keep their business afloat. Just like the big businessmen at the turn of the century, the executives of Northern Trust care only about their own wealth and benefits, providing minimal support to the average employee or consumer.

But Congress isn’t standing for it. In Washington D.C., “eighteen Democrats on the financial service panel told CEO Frederick Waddell to immediately return the money spent on the outing to the government.” The amount spent is still unknown, but the government is finally bearing down on foolish CEOs.

Contrast Northern Trust’s shenanigans with pilot Chesley Sullenberger’s meeting with Congress this week.

Sullenberger, the pilot of flight 1549 that successfully landed into the Hudson River, testified before Congress this week, claiming that pilots’ salaries have rapidly declined with the economic recession. Sullenberger personally had his salary cut by 40 percent and his pension was taken away. “I do not know a single professional airline pilot who wants his or her children to follow in their footsteps” Sullenberger said. If piloting is getting a bad reputation in terms of compensation, this could mean great pilots, like Sullenberger, won’t be around anymore. And that could be a big safety risk for Americans. The pilots are just like the unsung working-class heroes of the early 1900’s, providing a necessary service for the public, but never getting fairly rewarded for their hard work.

The big-shot bankers who helped put our country in an economic recession are off relaxing on a California golf course. The pilots of our nation and Sullenberger, a national hero who saved 150 lives, are fighting for every cent just so they can continue doing their jobs.

Is there something wrong here, or is it just me?

The Blago Blog

Rod Blagojevich is one of the most disgraced men in politics today. People know the former Illinois governor for his underhanded deals in the choosing of the next Illinois Senator, outrageous phone conversations and his eccentric haircut. But a recent article in the Chicago Tribune entitled “This Explains It,” tells Blagojevich’s story from the perspective of a college friend from Northwestern, Bill Powell. He describes the Blago of the seventies as a fun, energetic, hard working college student. The future governor used to prank call radio stations, go to restaurants at 3 am and leave without paying and crank Elvis in his dorm room. Rod had a small group of friends, but he was closest to Powell. As the writer puts it: “(Rod) and I weren’t casual friends, but someone you think you know cold; you know what motivates him, frightens him, ticks him off and makes him laugh.”

But Rod Blagojevich also had another side. The former governor lived on the West side of Chicago, and was the son of a Serbian immigrant. Blagojevich didn’t have all the money and wealth of the average Northwestern student, so he was motivated to himself to the top through hard work, intense schooling, and, later on, deceit. As Powell describes it: “He identified with Nixon, the up-from-nowhere guy who busted his butt to get where he is. If you brought up Nixon’s crimes, Rod would insist that the Kennedys were worse.” Blago took the side of Nixon, whose parents, like Rod's, had humble beginnings. He had to achieve success on his own. But Rod, like Nixon, took his stop-at-nothing-to-achieve-success mentality too far when he reached high office in the government.

Politicians like Blago and Nixon may be symbols in our unit of poverty and privilege. Both began with little money and support, but used their work ethic and brains to reach the top. But even when they became President and Governor, the driving force to escape their humble beginnings still haunted them, so they fought for more power or money anyway they could. These two men are not so different from the entrepreneurs at the turn of the century, many of whom started out poor, but ended up changing the face of industry in America--no matter how many cows they had to slaughter or how many immigrants' lives they had to ruin. One hundred years later, a man from the West side of Chicago used the same take-no-prisoners mentality in the office of Governor, but instead of escaping from his underprivileged childhood, he made himself the disgrace of our state.

Misfits of the Universe

For decades, a career as an investment banker was the ultimate job. Before 2008, working on Wall Street, being stock market savvy and making millions of dollars was the definition of success in America. As author Tom Wolfe noted in Bonfire of the Vanities, a satire about Wall Street, investment bankers are “the masters of the universe.” Although investment banking may not be the most exciting or engaging job, a fortune could be made through in-depth knowledge of the stock market. For the past few decades, America has put the job of investment banking on a pedestal, lusting after the wealth and power associated with the occupation…until 2008, that is, when everything on Wall Street, and our country, changed.

There is no question that investment banking is important in our country’s economy. It is a great way for corporations and entrepreneurs to leverage their cash and balance sheets, and for small businesses to expand, by engaging the finesse of Wall Street. What’s more, as the paychecks of executives in investment banking have swelled to hundreds of millions of dollars, so too has America’s enchantment with the profession. For example, according to The New York Times, “From the 1960s through the 1990s, Harvard graduates who chose careers in finance made three times the pay of their peers.” Also, from the mid-1990s to 2006, “compensation in finance was 30 to 50 percent higher than in the rest of industry.” For reasons like these, Americans ignored that fact that investment bankers weren’t invincible, and could have their jobs collapse just like any other profession. But when the financial crisis hit the U.S. in 2008, our entire country got a wake-up call about the less glamorous side of working for an investment bank.

The stock market plummeted in 2008 because of greed and stupidity on the part of investment bankers and their clients. These industry leaders were greedy and careless, never worrying about how increasingly risky their deals were. But the general public shares some blame as well. After all, they helped put the investment banking industry up on such a high pedestal. Everyone lost touch with the truth.

But the truth became pretty clear last month in, of all places, Davos, Switzerland. Each year, the banking industry meets there to hold a World Economic Forum, where they socialize and debate about issues such as “collaborative innovation” and “the values and leadership principles for a post-crisis world.” Last year, for example, Bono and Bill Gates made a pilgrimage to Davos to rub shoulders with the gurus of investment banking. For $220,000, any company can attend and have a private meeting with the “industry leaders." This year, however, a lot of their talk rang hollow. The New York Times even published a satire on the entire week-long event, while America’s disenchantment and distrust grew.

In the meantime, back on Wall Street, JP Morgan’s management put a restriction on the use of office supplies. Employees must ask a secretary for a key to the supply room if they need a pen. And in San Francisco, Goldman Sachs recently stopped providing free soy milk and Diet Cokes. Last week, the water cooler was also wheeled out of the office. “Word went around pretty quickly,” said one employee. “Bring your own water.”

The days of Davos, Switzerland may be numbered. Investment bankers are no longer the “masters of the universe” in our very troubled 2009 world.

From the Whitewashed Shack to the White House

It has been 159 years since Jim Robinson was born into slavery. Robinson, born on a plantation in Georgetown, South Carolina, lived as a slave, picking rice on the Friendfield Plantation and living in a small house with four or five other slave families. After the Civil War, Jim and his family lived as free sharecroppers in Georgetown. When Robinson died in the late 1800s, few people knew what he did or who he was. In fact, historians can only speculate where his body is buried. But today, over a century-and-a-half later, Jim’s life has become the beginning of a miraculous family story. The story of his great-great-granddaughter, Michelle Obama, our First Lady.

A Chicago Tribune article titled, “Michelle Obama’s Family: From Slavery to White House,” tells the amazing story of Michelle’s father’s family. Jim, who lived as a slave until he was fifteen years old, was illiterate and never ventured far from the plantation where he lived. In 1884, Jim’s wife gave birth to Fraser Robinson, who was illiterate early on in life but later taught himself to read and write. Fraser began the Robinson family tradition of pursuing education by bringing home the black newspaper “Palmetto Leader and Grit” for his kids to read. One of the children was Fraser Robinson Jr., Fraser Senior’s oldest son and Michelle Obama’s grandfather.

Born in 1912, Fraser Jr. was the first Robinson to receive a legitimate education after he graduated from high school in 1930. Fraser Jr. faced rough times in Georgetown because of segregation and the Depression. Because of this, Michelle’s grandfather made the decision to move to Chicago in search of a steady job. It was in Chicago where Fraser got married and had a son named Fraser Robinson III, Michelle’s father. Fraser III didn’t get a college education, but he helped guide Michelle to Princeton University and Harvard Law School. Now, Michelle will be using her family’s emphasis on knowledge and education to guide her through the responsibilities of the First Lady.

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and our study of the history of slavery, we can see that being literate and educated was one of the key differences between slaves and their owners. In Huck Finn, we can all see that Jim is a smart, kind man, but he is also ignorant. This ignorance is the reason that Huck can take advantage of the slave so much, because he can cheat or lie to Jim and he won’t know the difference. But the Robinson family worked for four generations to overcome the education hurdle that kept them from being equal to other Americans, even after slavery ended.

Through decades of hard work, Michelle Obama’s family not only helped catapult her from the slums of slavery and illiteracy, they gave her the chance to become the first African-American First Lady. The White House was built by slaves like her great-great-grandfather, but thanks to the work ethic of his descendants, Michelle is continuing the tradition of hard work with her intellect and leadership skills, and not her body.