Big shots in finance get lots of chances to mouth off to the public from their bully pulpits. How they use that clout tells much about what they are made of.

Two money titans hit the op-ed trail last week. One of them, Berkshire Hathaway Inc Chief Executive Officer Warren Buffett, offered constructive talk in the New York Times about why Congress must pay attention to the budget deficit once the US economy gets back on its feet. The other, Charles R. Schwab, emoted in a whine-fest in the Wall Street Journal about regulators who are picking on the brokerage firm he founded.

Buffett, the statesman of the two, has often used his stature to weigh in on public-policy issues. He typically does it with humility and selflessness.