We’re privileged to welcome to the World Economic Forum, the distinguished writer and thinker, Professor Holden Caulfield, 76-year-old president and founder of Rye Introspective LLP. Mr Caulfield has taken as his theme today “Goddam Money: It Always Ends Up Making You Blue as Hell”. Holden – the floor is yours.
Read the whole thing.
The news flow was thick and fast over the weekend; I recommend reading the Financial Times blog (which I linked to above) for the sane but concerned position on Greek Sovereign Dept problem, and the whacky but possibly correct views on Zero Hedge (www.zerohedge.com).
ReplyDeleteToo many interesting things to link. The Charts Tyler Durdan has over at Zero Hedge showing how bank assets (and hence debts) stack up compared to the country of domecile is enlightening.
The US has the luxury of banks that are too big to save; in Europe there are often too big to bail. C.f. Ireland, and Switzerland.
The buzz word you do not want to be hearing in this chatter is "contagion"... just saying.
I loved this comment, by 'Anonymous';
ReplyDelete"Earth to FT journalists : people are sick and tired of misguided banker trashing articles..."
Umm, no. Bankers may be tired of hearing it, but it is far from misguided, and based on a righteous anger that those who are supposed to be so intelligent and knowledgable, are in actuality so short-sighted and incompetent as to put the whole economy in danger of collapse due to an inability to see any farther than the next quarterly earnings statement, and the absurd bonuses that will thereby accrue to them.
"...The very fact that journalists preaching to the rest of us about morality and suggesting how "bankers are disconnected from everyone else" is frankly nonsensical and quite sickening too..."
The very act of writing this sentence shows that it is pretty much correct in all particulars, as the very same bankers whose incompetence and short-sightedness essentially caused the financial collapse walked away from that collapse with bonus rewards far beyond what most of those he claims to be connected with will earn in a decade of hard work, Assuming of course that, unlike the bankers, they do not fail in their jobs or businesses.
"...The moral judgement of journalists and their claims that "main street has a right to be angry" all the while you try to stoke the flames of populist rage is bringing 0 to the actual intelligent debate about financial reform. NO big surprise, just as you overlooked and failed to understand what was brewing before the crisis, you are now diverting the issues to bonuses with the miserable justification of selling more copies..."
This one is pretty much incomprehensible. Of Course the journalists, who are, after all, nothing more than parrots of the popular culture, will share in, and report on, the anger that is still growing among those who actually work for a living as well as following rules, both external and internal, for moral behavior.
And then to fault those same journalists for failing to see the future that the bankers were completely ignorant of is akin to blaming the guy in the backseat of the bus when it goes over a cliff.
Now, I know in the financial culture, 'morality' and 'profit' are interchangeable words, but they need to learn that for the rest of us, 'failure' and 'poverty' are, as well.
And poverty is what is deserved by every one of those who so foolishly drove off that cliff, rather than the golden parachutes they used to save themselves while the rest of us crashed and burned.
Anger on Main Street? Damned right there is. And that anger will not be assuaged until Main Street sees some consequences to those who screwed up, and expect the rest of us to pick up the tag for that, while they go blithely back to their McMansions and F40's.
Umm, dammit, of course I meant 'tab' not 'tag'.
ReplyDeleteLMAO! I love the "Holden Caulfield" bit. It's very clever.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of news to absorb from the weekend. I've been reading all morning...