Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein is stunned:

They would have committed themselves not to foreclose on any homeowner who is willing and able to refinance...

They would have offered to suspend dividend payments...

They would have given us their solemn promise not to advise clients to hold on to their own investments while quietly dumping whatever they can...

And the maharajas of finance could have set a wonderful example if they had all gotten together and agreed to work for a dollar a year until the crisis has passed.

There's a word that captures the instinct to take these kind of bold moves in the midst of a national crisis -- it's called leadership. We've seen quite a bit of it these past few weeks from public officials...Wall Street, by contrast, has served up a nothing sandwich, a lack of leadership that's been stunning.