Villains of meltdown

For those of you still in search of the people, companies, institutions, and vices most responsible for the economic mess, check out Bruce Feirstein's top 100 in the October Vanity Fair (VF.com is running five new ones each day). Looking to go beyond the usual suspects, Feirstein (a Native Intelligence contributor) comes up with many other interesting (and occasionally bizarre) inclusions - Botox, the Celebrity Industrial Complex. Dubai, Gordon Gekko, Ernest Hemingway, the Infantile American Consumer, Ralph Nader, Nancy Pelosi and Viagra. Local angle: Angelo Mozilo, Orange County and Roland Arnell also make the list. One of my favorite citations is the BlackBerry:

The executive status symbol of urgent self-importance. We're not opposed to opposable-thumb typing. And we'll spare you the "CrackBerry" addiction references. But how many bad deals were made because somebody fired off a hasty e-mail at three a.m. and didn't take the time to think about it? How many millions were lost because someone didn't have the patience to read through to the bottom of a message and missed the key details? In short, it was the perfect tool for instant miscommunication. Or, as one might put it BlackBerry-style: 2 little, 2 l8, 2 bad. C u l8r.

If you're after a good pre-holiday weekend read, check out Sam Kashner's riveting cover story in the same issue on the saga behind William Manchester's best-seller, "The Death of a President." You might come away with a slightly altered view of Jackie and Bobby.