For Meriwether, it was a horror of a different sort. Everything he had done since the scandal at Salomon had been, at least in his mind, aimed at restoring his reputation and career. Now it had all come crashing down. The most inward of men, Meriwether had become a public figure identified with the arrogance, greed, and speculative folly of Wall Street taken to staggering excess. He and his devoted arbitrageurs were the authors of a historic collapse, one that had threatened the entire system.
