It was a different time. Blame the old guy. I told you everything. Is there an excuse former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain hasn't trotted out to explain why his fall is not his fault?

After details of a spending spree became public, Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain has resigned from his post at Bank of America, which bought his firm in the midst of the Panic of '08.

They called him "Superthain." John Thain, Merrill Lynch's Clark Kent-lookalike CEO, had the public image of a straight-shooting, clean-living superhero CEO. Billions of dollars in losses haven't stained that, but an $87,000 rug could.

With bonuses slashed, investment bankers are starting to turn on their own. The year money forgot saw a handful of opportunistic contrarians stack up the tall dollars. Now they're getting cut down in the press.

Justice so sweet, you can taste it: Instead of cash or stock, bankers at Credit Suisse will get their bonuses in the form of the devalued mortgage bonds they helped peddle.

I recently reread Den of Thieves, the tale of how federal prosecutors brought down Wall Street giants Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken, the emblems of the '80s takeover boom. It turns out that Boesky never actually said, "Greed is good," the line Michael Douglas uttered as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street.