Rich Man, Poor Man

This morning's Wall Street Journal contains a rich study in contrast.

One article reports on a former New York Mercantile Exchange board member and trader who pleaded guilty to two felony counts involving illegal natural-gas trading. Apparently, ex-Nymex director Steven Karvellas made trades and then waited to see their outcome before assigning the trades to his account or his clients' accounts. He assigned the more profitable trades to his own account. This trader also headed the Nymex board's compliance-review committee. In 2002, Karvellas wrote a letter as part of his board re-election campaign that noted that the "shocking collapse of Enron indicates that our Exchange does wear a white hat in the financial world." Karvellas' illegal trades took place that same year.

The article presents a brief and unpleasant portrait of Karvellas. He reportedly traded punches with another trader in the gold-trading pit earlier in his career. (The piece also contains a strong comment from Commodity Futures Trading Commission director of enforcement Gregory Mocek, who worked the case with Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.)

In another article, this one in the paper's personal finance section, longtime columnist Jonathan Clements bids farewell. And he offers parting advice after more than 1,000 columns and 26 years in journalism.

Clements' last words on personal financial management are light on finance and heavy on personal fulfillment: "Forget spending more money at the mall -- and instead spend more time with friends. Your bank account may still be skimpy, but your life will be far, far richer."

Even when we bend, fudge, lie, and cheat to fatten our accounts, we still come out poor in a more important way.