'So, just how corrupt is America?'

http://www.nytimes.c...riedman.html?_r=1

Hey! he. stole. my. line!

The Great Unraveling

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: December 16, 2008

Hong Kong

The stranger, a Western businessman, slipped into the chair next to me at an Asia Society lunch here in Hong Kong and asked me a question that I can honestly say IÂve never been asked before: ÂSo, just how corrupt is America?Â

His question was occasioned by the arrest of the Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff on charges of running a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of billions of dollars, but it wasnÂt only that. ItÂs the whole bloody mess coming out of Wall Street Â the financial center that Hong Kong moneymen had always looked up to. How could it be, they wonder, that such brand names as Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and A.I.G. could turn out to have such feet of clay? Where, they wonder, was our Securities and Exchange Commission and the high standards that we had preached to them all these years?

One of Hong KongÂs most-respected bankers, who asked not to be identified, told me that the U.S.-owned investment company where he works made a mint in the last decade cleaning up sick Asian banks. They did so by importing the best U.S. practices, particularly the principles of Âknow thy customersÂ and strict risk controls. But now, he asked, who is there to look to for exemplary leadership?

[. . .]

But while capitalism has saved China, the end of communism seems to have slightly unhinged America. We lost our two biggest ideological competitors Â Beijing and Moscow. Everyone needs a competitor. It keeps you disciplined. But once American capitalism no longer had to worry about communism, it seems to have gone crazy. Investment banks and hedge funds were leveraging themselves at crazy levels, paying themselves crazy salaries and, most of all, inventing financial instruments that completely disconnected the ultimate lenders from the original borrowers, and left no one accountable. ÂThe collapse of communism pushed China to the center and [America] to the extreme,Â said Ben Simpfendorfer, chief China economist at Royal Bank of Scotland.

The Madoff affair is the cherry on top of a national breakdown in financial propriety, regulations and common sense. Which is why we donÂt just need a financial bailout; we need an ethical bailout. We need to re-establish the core balance between our markets, ethics and regulations. I donÂt want to kill the animal spirits that necessarily drive capitalism Â but I donÂt want to be eaten by them either.

Who, indeed.

(No secret) methinks that the corruption begins in biz-school, is evidenced in the universal *wink-nudge* patter in every sales/marketing meeting, etc. Not Getting Caught - is the prime directive. "Sincerity is Everything: when you can fake that.. you've got It Made." -- that isn't even a joke, and the winces on a first-hearing demonstrate the nerve tweaked / the basic-hypocrisy of organized religion -- mapped right-onto the koans of the $$-grubbing obsessed.

HTF could a 'country' -suddenly- Fix >That< ?!?

Me neither.
I expect next, levels-of-bloviation not-yet-Seen, to characterize the manifold ways we shall find -- to avoid facing what we have become. Unclear which is the most insoluble - the current level of ineptness (or just plain dumbth) or the hypocrisy of having little aim to clean up our National Act.

As to that "animal spirit" ... if it didn't exist it wouldn't be missed.

Cue-up sad folk-songs. I'll stick to Mahler -- pathos without the mewlings of the lugubrious miscreant -- lying about an(y) intention ever 'to go straight'.

[Edit]

Here's Arianna's Rondo and Capriccioso on the theme; same theme: different theatres.

http://www.huffingto...e-f_b_151219.html

Will The Madoff Debacle Finally End The "Who Could Have Known?" Era?

Yashure..

Post #301,163 by Ashton 12/17/08 4:13:52 AM 12/17/08 4:31:32 AM Reply	'So, just how corrupt is America?' http://www.nytimes.c...riedman.html?_r=1 Hey! he. stole. my. line! The Great Unraveling By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Published: December 16, 2008 Hong Kong The stranger, a Western businessman, slipped into the chair next to me at an Asia Society lunch here in Hong Kong and asked me a question that I can honestly say IÂve never been asked before: ÂSo, just how corrupt is America?Â His question was occasioned by the arrest of the Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff on charges of running a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of billions of dollars, but it wasnÂt only that. ItÂs the whole bloody mess coming out of Wall Street Â the financial center that Hong Kong moneymen had always looked up to. How could it be, they wonder, that such brand names as Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and A.I.G. could turn out to have such feet of clay? Where, they wonder, was our Securities and Exchange Commission and the high standards that we had preached to them all these years? One of Hong KongÂs most-respected bankers, who asked not to be identified, told me that the U.S.-owned investment company where he works made a mint in the last decade cleaning up sick Asian banks. They did so by importing the best U.S. practices, particularly the principles of Âknow thy customersÂ and strict risk controls. But now, he asked, who is there to look to for exemplary leadership? [. . .] But while capitalism has saved China, the end of communism seems to have slightly unhinged America. We lost our two biggest ideological competitors Â Beijing and Moscow. Everyone needs a competitor. It keeps you disciplined. But once American capitalism no longer had to worry about communism, it seems to have gone crazy. Investment banks and hedge funds were leveraging themselves at crazy levels, paying themselves crazy salaries and, most of all, inventing financial instruments that completely disconnected the ultimate lenders from the original borrowers, and left no one accountable. ÂThe collapse of communism pushed China to the center and [America] to the extreme,Â said Ben Simpfendorfer, chief China economist at Royal Bank of Scotland. The Madoff affair is the cherry on top of a national breakdown in financial propriety, regulations and common sense. Which is why we donÂt just need a financial bailout; we need an ethical bailout. We need to re-establish the core balance between our markets, ethics and regulations. I donÂt want to kill the animal spirits that necessarily drive capitalism Â but I donÂt want to be eaten by them either. Who, indeed. (No secret) methinks that the corruption begins in biz-school, is evidenced in the universal wink-nudge patter in every sales/marketing meeting, etc. Not Getting Caught - is the prime directive. "Sincerity is Everything: when you can fake that.. you've got It Made." -- that isn't even a joke, and the winces on a first-hearing demonstrate the nerve tweaked / the basic-hypocrisy of organized religion -- mapped right-onto the koans of the $$-grubbing obsessed. HTF could a 'country' -suddenly- Fix >That< ?!? Me neither. I expect next, levels-of-bloviation not-yet-Seen, to characterize the manifold ways we shall find -- to avoid facing what we have become. Unclear which is the most insoluble - the current level of ineptness (or just plain dumbth) or the hypocrisy of having little aim to clean up our National Act. As to that "animal spirit" ... if it didn't exist it wouldn't be missed. Cue-up sad folk-songs. I'll stick to Mahler -- pathos without the mewlings of the lugubrious miscreant -- lying about an(y) intention ever 'to go straight'. [Edit] Here's Arianna's Rondo and Capriccioso on the theme; same theme: different theatres. http://www.huffingto...e-f_b_151219.html Will The Madoff Debacle Finally End The "Who Could Have Known?" Era? Yashure.. The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. -- H.L. Mencken Edited by Ashton Dec. 17, 2008, 04:31:32 AM EST Expand All History
Post #301,172 by dmcarls 12/17/08 10:18:50 AM Reply	Who, indeed. >>> Which is why we donÂt just need a financial bailout; we need an ethical bailout <<< [...] Old iron, old bones, old rags, that raving slut Who keeps the till. Now that my ladder's gone, I must lie down where all the ladders start In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart. (Yeats) There are hundreds, if not thousands, of hedge-funds out there. Do we really think that Mr Madoff is the only one who figured out how to do a Ponzi scheme? Sunlight, please.
Post #301,173 by drook 12/17/08 10:19:27 AM Reply	That's still a step too far removed Investment banks and hedge funds were leveraging themselves at crazy levels, paying themselves crazy salaries and, most of all, inventing financial instruments that completely disconnected the ultimate lenders from the original borrowers, and left no one accountable. It's not just that lenders were disconnected from borrowers. It's that "profit" has been disconnected from any real productive activity. -- Drew
Post #301,196 by Ashton 12/17/08 5:13:15 PM Reply	Perfidy.. Where is thy Sting? May there be a lot of itchiness from running-sores inside a LOT of Armani Suits, ere this mondo-fiasco is gotten by.. and there still exist bookkeepers to retrieve some of the swag == more job creation! We'll need thousands of Investigative Accountants-with-teeth. (And if Pelosi cannot be prodded into actually Doing Something, (something.. At All) we'll deserve the next generation of Ann Coulters and the other runts of the litter.) Couple Keepers in this thread :-) The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. -- H.L. Mencken

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