"Consumers have concluded that the real trouble came not from those they didn’t trust to begin with, but from the very ones they were relying on to watch their backs," he writes.
Discovering they've been hornswaggled by bankers and brokers has them left them angry.
"As this crisis has unfolded, consumers believe that every new revelation has added yet more proof that the game wasn’t fair."
"Fairness" is the consumer's new mantra, Smith believes.
"Consumers want to be treated equitably. They don’t want their interests betrayed by the furtive self-interests of the companies and brands with which they do business. They want an exchange that is true to what it professes to be, and they want companies and brands willing to bear their share of the responsibility and sacrifice."
