A Wall Street failure who takes his own life isn't doing anything honorable.

This was perhaps understandable; more surprising was when The Times’ reporters heartily echoed this sentiment.

“Mr. de la Villehuchet’s attitude appears to be rare,” they wrote.

“So far, the leading players in Mr. Madoff’s case have maintained a stony silence, studiously avoiding apologies or statements of responsibility.”

Leave to one side the essentially unknowability of Mr. de La Villehuchet’s attitude -- perhaps he was merely distraught at having lost his own money. Consider instead the strange assumption: that suicide is a form of “taking responsibility.”

Suicide can be interpreted in many ways: as honorable, cowardly, sad, tragic, even as a matter of personal choice beyond the reach of moral judgment.

But as a practical matter, after a financier has killed himself, there is no noticeable decline in the sum total of responsibility in need of taking in the financial world. His death fixes no problems, restores no wealth, redresses no harm.