Do you feel badly for Wall Street?
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Do I feel badly for Wall Street? Well, consider this:
Given the laws and court decisions for the last 100 or so years, the human beings that work on Wall Street are, basically, acting like human beings.
All of us, or at least the vast majority, will push the envelope, at least a little. Whether it is on a spouse, the speed limit, tax forms or what-have-you, humans tend to try to get away with as much as they can.
The ‘neoliberalism’ that took hold in the US in the 1980s has led to an “anything goes” mentality on Wall Street. A lot of individuals knew what they were doing had some sharp edges, but everybody else was doing it.
I do not feel sorry for Wall Street as much as I wish POTUS and a Dem controlled congress, would lower the boom on them. But that is an impossibility seeing POTUS hired Summers & Geithner.
I don’t feel sorry for them one but.
I feel sorry that some of them are bot in jail (or went to jail, they would be out by now).
And I don’t believe for a minute that it is ‘human nature’ to push the limits of the law. That is absurd. It’s something children do, not adults. Or a rich mans excuse. Poor people cannot afford to tell prosecutors ‘I was just pushing the limits of the law, it’s human nature’.
There is so much stupid in America right now, it hurts my head.
nalbar
Typos! Don’t feel sorry for them one BIT. NOT in jail.
nalbar
I think that is naive to think that it is not ‘human nature’ to push the limits of the law.
There are a lot of things that people do that may not be “adult like” but they somehow get away with.
And going back to Wall Street, managers and employees either play the game or they get replaced by someone who will play the game.
And I know the Judge isn’t very sympathetic when I’m caught doing 80 in a 65 mph zone. The big BUT is, those folks on Wall Street never will have to face the consequences. We privatize profit and socialize risk.
It’s funny because he actually believes the shit he says.
lol @ “a few bad apples”.
The people who worked at the firms where shenaigans went on and lost their jobs through no fault of their own, I think they were punked.
The top level cheaters don’t care and they have their money. The laws weren’t in place making them criminals, so they got away with it. I don’t wish them well.
There are supposed to be about 80,000 lay offs in Wall Street down the road. Those will be the lower levels of workers.
I’d like to see the financial sector downsized and other types of industry become viable. The less importance Wall Street has, the better.
Do I feel badly for Wall Street? F-ck no!! And do you know what Mr. Scaramucci does for a living? He’s basically like your local insurance agent. Seriously!! And yet he gets paid millions.
“Goldman is the American dream factory. They can move people from the lower middle class to the ultra rich in one generation.” Therefore, he believed, Goldman should be praised, not scorned.”
There’s the tell, right there. The Mafia is also the American dream factory in his view. So is Madoff. So is Enron. If it is indeed America’s dream to be “ultra rich in one generation”, then we don’t deserve to survive. Neither does Wall Street. This sorry ass doesn’t even seem to get it that wealth is supposed to be related to accomplishment. By that standard, what he and all the rest of the Wall Street “heroes” belong in doorways rattling small change around in paper cups.
HELL NO
Do I feel badly for an industry basically designed to fleece the American public?
Do I feel badly for the fuckers putting people out on the street and foreclosing on homes they don’t have the title to?
Do I feel badly for an industry that received trillions in taxpayer loan dollars so that they could continue to do the same things they did three years ago?
What the fuck do you think?
That is not a serious question.
Should have been a broomstick…
This is the key thing: this speculative bubble was an enormous ponzi scheme based on systematic fraud. All the executives at every single player knew exactly what was up. They may not have known the intimate details, but they knew what the game was, or they wouldn’t be there. When the game blew up and wrecked the economy, the executives got bailed out and paid themselves bonuses out of the trillions in free money from the government. Not a single one went to jail or has even been charged with a crime. As far as I know hardly any have lost their jobs. Meanwhile tens of millions are out of work or losing their home. Poor Bernie Madoff would have been home free if he’d just worked for Goldman.
oh, and these galtian super-geniuses don’t pay taxes either.
but…but…they, or at least some of them, feel your pain.
</snark>
Companies are like sharks. All they know how to do is eat. How can one be mad at a shark for being a shark? We have seen the percentage of the GNP from the financial sector grow from 20% to maybe over 60%. If Obama were to take down Wall Street where would that leave the economy? Want to suddenly reduce the GNP by say 20% or more?
Paul Krugman is correct that we have a demand problem. Because it was good for the sharks, oops I mean business, to let our manufacturing base be replaced by the financial industry, too many people can no longer buy things to keep the economy growing so things just get worse. The sharks will only get some manners when they are forced to by our government. This is the vital role of our government if our capitalist system can survive. If I want to find someone to blame I will look first at the conservative mindset that got us to this point.