Can You Say, "I Screwed Up and I'm Sorry"? Sure You Can.

Unless, of course, you're a Wall Street banker. In which case there are all kinds of ways not to say, "I'm sorry".

I was thrilled to see this headline today at Yahoo!News: "Bankers apologize for actions that led to crisis." (story, by Jim Kuhnhenn and Daniel Wagner of the Associated Press, here)

But, in fact, there wasn't much real apology.

There was: "We regret the consequences..." from Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs (Mr. "We're doing God's work", as you no doubt recall).

The closest was, "We did make mistakes" from Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase -- although he quickly softened that with "there were things we could have done better." Ya think?

And Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan claimed to "understand the anger felt by many citizens."

But what they don't seem to understand is that we Main Street types are not looking for "nuanced regret -- admitting mistakes without accepting blame", as it was called by Andrew Martin and Micheline Maynard in an article in today's New York Times. We are looking for an admission of personal responsibility, a genuine apology, and a realistic attempt at restitution.

Just think about what was going on: Goldman Sachs, as an example, provided clients with "notes" from its fundamental strategies groups with investment ideas -- and "did not always disclose its own positions when it share its trading ideas," according to Andrew Ross Sorkin's piece, also in today's Times.

Sorkin reported that, in an e-mail to select clients, the head of the fundamental strategies group "acknowledged that his unit often provided investment ideas that the firm had already traded on. Sometimes Goldman has even take the opposite approach, betting against particular instruments that the group has recommended."

Can you say, "Complete conflict of interest"? Sure you can.