Wall Street on Wall Street: Lake Villa workers decry 'corporate gluttony'

The view on Wall Street in Lake Villa bears little resemblance to its namesake in New York City.

There's no granite canyon formed by skyscrapers. No white marble pillars. No symbols of financial power here.

Instead, there's Schneider's Trucking and R & D Tool on the south side of the street. The crackling sound from a welder's torch and sparks flying from a metal grinder emanate from S & G Ironworks on the north side. The tallest thing to rise above these one-story buildings is the crane parked in the back of Sunlake Materials.

But the chaos on New York's Wall Street has an effect on people and businesses on Lake Villa's Wall Street. And the workers on this short strip of asphalt have opinions on the crisis.

"This will go down as the era of corporate gluttony," says Loren Esch. The president of R & D Tool says greed is the root of this financial debacle.

"People want instant gratification," he said. "The bankers knew they were selling mortgages to people who could never pay it back. They just wanted to make money in the short term."

The markets seem to be recovering slightly from the crushing 2,400-point losses in the past eight sessions. Government rescue plans are helping, but economists say we have a long way to go.

Pam Cozart says it's great the Feds are stepping up now, but where were they when the bad deals were being made?

"The government turned a blind-eye on the financial business," said Cozart, the office manager at Schneider's trucking. She blames a lack of lender regulation for the mess. "They loaned to people they knew full well couldn't pay it back. The government was looking the other way."

There's plenty of activity among the handful of business here. People pulling tarp-covered boats into the garages at Safe and Secure Self-Storage. Semi-trucks chug in and out of Schneider's. A backhoe pushes gravel at Sunlake Materials. Nobody is planning to shut down. But Esch said they've had better years at his machine shop.

"We're doing OK," he said. "We're not logging as many hours as some other years. But let's hope they clean house at the banks so we can get back on track."