Many of Wall Street’s masters of the universe owe their past big bonuses to a strategy that can be best-described as picking up nickels in front of a bulldozer. Provided one timed things well, the gains were easy and the occasional crushed finger afflicted only the unlucky.

As the credit glut reached extreme levels, the nickels turned into pennies and there were suddenly a lot more people trying to grab them. Past returns could only be maintained with prodigious leverage that put the bulldozer into a higher gear. Several smashed hands, arms and sometimes whole bodies later, Wall Street might have learned its lesson too well, leaving plenty of loose change piling up.