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MF Global, Better to look an idiot, vs searching for the BBF in the slammer, eh? .....LIP
That's okay. I have a list longer than my arm about all such events over the past few years that I have not and may not post here. I really do not choose to post the negative's that surround our investment world; but folks sure as heck should know and understand that they (we) are involved in an investment world that does include crooks and thieves with psychopathic tendancies What is a social psychopath? which debase the moral and ethical fiber one needs to maintain. Not that those here at MFO are not aware of any of this.
THERE is an ongoing debate in this country about the rich: who they are, what their social role may be, whether they are good or bad. Well, consider the following. A 2010 study found that 4 percent of a sample of corporate managers met a clinical threshold for being labeled psychopaths, compared with 1 percent for the population at large. (However, the sample was not representative, as the study’s authors have noted.) Another study concluded that the rich are more likely to lie, cheat and break the law. ...
The English writer Bernard Mandeville [wrote] nearly three centuries ago [] a satirical-poem-cum-philosophical-treatise called “The Fable of the Bees.”
“Private Vices, Publick Benefits” read the book’s subtitle. A Machiavelli of the economic realm — a man who showed us as we are, not as we like to think we are — Mandeville argued that commercial society creates prosperity by harnessing our natural impulses: fraud, luxury and pride. By “pride” Mandeville meant vanity; by “luxury” he meant the desire for sensuous indulgence. These create demand, as every ad man knows. On the supply side, as we’d say, was fraud: “All Trades and Places knew some Cheat, / No Calling was without Deceit.”
I'd like to believe that there are better angels in all of us. Oft times I wonder ...
from dealbook: "Mr. Corzine, in a bid to rebuild his image and engage his passion for trading, is weighing whether to start a hedge fund, according to people with knowledge of his plans. He is currently trading with his family’s wealth.If he is successful as a hedge fund manager, it would be the latest career comeback for a man who was ousted from both the top seat at Goldman Sachs and the New Jersey governor’s mansion."
unbelievable. would be funny if he indeed finds outside investors.
Reply to @msf: "I'd like to believe that there are better angels in all of us. Oft times I wonder ... "
Now you bring up a new question. Since we seems to like and admire the qualities we pretend to detest, why did man (the species) make his angels have the qualties we consider weak and not admirable? Why not have angels that promote what we want promoted? Instead we have to spin and twist what we like and admire to make it seem like it's not so bad or best (and angels are something else entirely).
Reply to @fundalarm: "would be funny if he indeed finds outside investors."
This does sort of remind me of people sent to jail. They say recidivism is high and jail has little affect on their chosen career path. Mr. Corzine's investors might not find his past any different than their own might have been if they had been similarly "unlucky".
Reply to @Old_Joe: I suppose it's a matter of disappointment in regards to the current administration in regards to their handling (regulation, trying to actually make sure that things like MF Global are not tolerated instead of ignored because the guy in charge is politically connected) of the financial system over the last four years. I know that Romney will do no better almost certainly.
However, I don't have hope that he will as nothing would indicate that he would. Silly me, I did have hope, however, that the current one would have - which makes comments like this, from the most unheard from vice president possibly in American history, all the more infuriating.
Additionally, as for all the regulations that Romney would supposedly repeal, um, what would those be? Because they seem oh so regulated by the current administration, which really has the financial system in check (or is it the other way around, me thinks?)
Hi msf, Thank you for the additional notes. One may suspect that this best and brightest of this other side of life tend to gravitate to positions of power. The ironic side of this; at least to the thoughts I have had about "these folks", is that at some point they may also find themselves pitted in battle using the "tactics" upon one another. I don't imagine that all of those at the top of any big money centers are all buddies; but merely belong to a "similar cult club", and would not be beyond doing a dirty deed or two to win the game, eh? I would think the ultimate goal for such thinkers is to be the "winner take all". Take care, Catch
Comments
That's okay. I have a list longer than my arm about all such events over the past few years that I have not and may not post here. I really do not choose to post the negative's that surround our investment world; but folks sure as heck should know and understand that they (we) are involved in an investment world that does include crooks and thieves with psychopathic tendancies What is a social psychopath? which debase the moral and ethical fiber one needs to maintain. Not that those here at MFO are not aware of any of this.
I can almost hear/read your words, too.
Take care,
Catch
From http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/opinion/sunday/fables-of-wealth.html I'd like to believe that there are better angels in all of us. Oft times I wonder ...
unbelievable. would be funny if he indeed finds outside investors.
Now you bring up a new question. Since we seems to like and admire the qualities we pretend to detest, why did man (the species) make his angels have the qualties we consider weak and not admirable? Why not have angels that promote what we want promoted? Instead we have to spin and twist what we like and admire to make it seem like it's not so bad or best (and angels are something else entirely).
This does sort of remind me of people sent to jail. They say recidivism is high and jail has little affect on their chosen career path. Mr. Corzine's investors might not find his past any different than their own might have been if they had been similarly "unlucky".
However, I don't have hope that he will as nothing would indicate that he would. Silly me, I did have hope, however, that the current one would have - which makes comments like this, from the most unheard from vice president possibly in American history, all the more infuriating.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/15/obama-joe-biden-chains_n_1785448.html
Additionally, as for all the regulations that Romney would supposedly repeal, um, what would those be? Because they seem oh so regulated by the current administration, which really has the financial system in check (or is it the other way around, me thinks?)
Thank you for the additional notes. One may suspect that this best and brightest of this other side of life tend to gravitate to positions of power.
The ironic side of this; at least to the thoughts I have had about "these folks", is that at some point they may also find themselves pitted in battle using the "tactics" upon one another. I don't imagine that all of those at the top of any big money centers are all buddies; but merely belong to a "similar cult club", and would not be beyond doing a dirty deed or two to win the game, eh? I would think the ultimate goal for such thinkers is to be the "winner take all".
Take care,
Catch