Yesterday a blogger who I respect immensely and agree with regularly, Paul Kedrosky, posted a story entitled "Tom Wolfe is an Idiot."  Soon thereafter, a blogger that I read regularly, but agree with sporadically, hopped on to try to stir this tempest in a teapot out of control.

Paul wrote that:

"I’m not sure which part of an absurd interview with writer Tom Wolfe to point to — there are many idiocies to choose among — but I’ll just point to this one and go with it"

He then went on to quote the following passage from the Tom Wolfe’s interview with the New York Observer:

"The whole thing, starting with the subprime, is the fault of the computer. I was just talking to a banker the other day, and not that long ago, 20 years ago, an investment banking house, let’s say, Lehman Brothers, when it got a package of mortgages, they would go through every mortgage, every single one, and they’d throw out the ones that just seemed absurd, they just wouldn’t accept them. Things used to arrive on paper. Today things arrive on a screen, and a screen is back lit, and one of the biggest pains in the neck is trying to read something dully written and complicated on a computer screen. It will drive you nuts—I mean, try it sometime. Now they say, ‘Oh, to hell with it,’ and they just accept the whole package. And if it hadn’t been for that, they’d be going over each loan. What’s happened is the backward march of technology."

I understand that everyone is a little on edge these days in the investment world, but come on Paul…you’re better than this.  Tom Wolfe is a satirist who wears a white suit nearly ever day, rain or shine, winter or summer.  Absurdity is his stock in trade.  It is his brand.  It is an affectation that he uses to great effect in his work.

Does he REALLY mean that the whole financial mess is "the fault of the computer." Un-bloody-likely. 

However, within that absurd statement is a kernel of truth about the speed at which we move today, the speed with which computers enable us to move today, and the consequences of that speed.  In our efforts to keep up with Internet Time we launch half-thought-out missives to our blogs, blast semi-conscious missiles from our Twitter accounts, and accept 1001 mortgages in a single click.  Like the recent Google/United story, it reminds us that we are reacting so fast today while relying so heavily on our computers, that important decisions can be glossed over with disastrous results.