Did Missed Meeting Hurt Bankers?

The bank execs who missed Monday’s meeting with the White House--claiming "inclement weather" would delay their flights—would do well to remember the old Wall Street adage "you can't fax a handshake," writes Andrew Ross Sorkin in his DealBook column. "The balance of power between Wall Street and Washington has shifted again, back in Wall Street's favor," says the New York Times columnist, thanks to paid-back loans and surging profits, which means that the White House "is getting stood up" in both "the figurative and literal sense." But, Sorkin writes, "public perception will issue its harsh ruling," and Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein, Morgan Stanley's John Mack and Citigroup's Richard Parsons—the three executives who missed the meeting—will come out looking bad, despite their apparent commitment to the president's reform goals.