Sometimes Even the Smart Ones are Dumber than Dirt
It used to be that I prided myself on being 'up' on current events. Unfortunately, the last few years have seen events that grated so thoroughly on my soul, that my mental survival demanded I look away. Ergo, the latest cultural tale of criminality involving Bernie Madoff and the uber elite and uber wealthy of the finance and celebrity communities has been slow to capture my attention. Also, I've been far more concerned and intimately involved with all the man-made crap falling down on the heads of my own socio-economic group to care much about what happens to those who gained either their notoriety or bank accounts through egocentric or fraudulent or other questionable means because of the attention span of idiots and morons.
Just a quick read of some of the investigative material out there now that the damage has been done leads to one irrefutable conclusion as far as I'm concerned. No matter how smart anyone thinks they are, inattention can be invitation to disaster. And inattention - whether we call it a lack of insight, a lack of foresight or a lack of oversight - has been at the bottom of every ill that has befallen us as humans since Pandora opened that deadly box. Humans seem to have an inbred tendency to fall asleep at the wheel.
For a gal in the vanguard of many things, I'm also unrepentantly old fashioned. I see nothing worth emulation in criminality. I see nothing to recommended generalized or specific greed. I find no defining boundaries in wealth. I never suspect anyone of being better than they absolutely have to be which translates into few people being half as good as they pretend they are. Money might be the definition of value and/or worth in our society, but it's real value lays only in the convenience it can provide. The contradiction is that money can also be wildly inconvenient, because once people obtain a large amount, the money controls them rather than them controlling the money. Some people get so pushed around, dictated to, and warped by their wealth that they are diminished in every area that is important. At the same time, they are not worthy of either my attention or concern. I am unable to cry for monied people.
So, into this scene of wealth, privilege, illusion, global importance and self aggrandizement comes an example of globalized slime named Bernard Manhoff, with his version of a 1920's pyramid scheme to help the greed filled wealthy fool themselves while he cheats them out of their undeserved money. The best thing that can be said of him is that he is an equal opportunity swindler at play in the fields of international and global finance. One hedge fund manager has committed suicide for losing over a billion dollars of his clients' money and couldn't handle the shame of being so badly duped. Other hedge funds have also been defrauded with less bloody results. Banks, those practitioners of full card Monty on a grandiose sale and bastions of depriving the needy for the betterment of their own wealthy were also targeted for fraud, and lost billions. It is the foundations and charitable trusts that at least deserve a modicum of pity for their losses. One in particular that was heartbreaking was the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. Nothing humane in that swindle.
I laughed at finding the Palm Beach Country Club on the list of losers, but I mourned the loss of shine on the icon that is the Royal Bank of Scotland. After all, the Scots are supposedly the poster children for frugality and vigilance in monetary matters. No more, it seems.
Except for our own government's fraud perpetrated on American taxpayers to the tune of $700 billion plus in bail out money for our incompetent sicon's of industry, the Madoff scandal is the largest rip off in history, yet the man is out on bail. Apologies to Mohammad Ali, but I wonder if Madoff is still floating through life like a butterfly even if he can no long sting like a bee.
And what about the S.E.C. in this sad state of affairs? Where exactly were they, especially after the warnings received about Madoff's scheme in 1999? What were they doing, and who were they doing it to? Will we be faced with another situation where the specific culprit in such a global scam is punished with little more than a slap on the wrist while underlings, like the guy who posed as the auditor of Madoff's business is hung out to dry? Is this an Enron Redux? Do we, as a supposedly progressive, knowledgeable, honorable governmental entity have the courage to truly clean up the mess our government and its regulating bodies helped create or like most things, will we put a 'Snoopy' band-aid of the ouchie and declare the situation resolved?
A comment on one of the blog entries about this fraud suggested that the best and most fitting punishment would be in standing the 70 year old Madoff in front of a brick wall after giving at least six of the defrauded loaded rifles. Considering how Europeanized the full extend of the fraud was, perhaps such a solution would be apt. Or, since Nomura in Japan was another that lost money, might hari kari be allowed? Maybe put him on the 18th green at Palm Beach and drive golf balls at him. Or force him to watch every movie ever made by Steven Spielberg, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick without pause or a bath room break.
Somehow, whatever is ultimately done it will not be enough, if anything is done at all. And if nothing is done or if whatever cage the perpetrator is assigned is swanky and golden the delineation between what happens to the rich and what happens to the poor will again be far too clear. Actually, this situation when compared to the starvation deaths in Africa, the war deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, the 'disgruntlement' deaths because the Arabs and Israelis can't get along, the children who die from lack of care, the old people who waste away in illness than receive no attention, and the minds that are wasted from poor schools, nutritian, and absue is really nothing more than very small potatoes for a bunch of very small if wealthy private investor-type people. It's hard to really give a damn.
Just a quick read of some of the investigative material out there now that the damage has been done leads to one irrefutable conclusion as far as I'm concerned. No matter how smart anyone thinks they are, inattention can be invitation to disaster. And inattention - whether we call it a lack of insight, a lack of foresight or a lack of oversight - has been at the bottom of every ill that has befallen us as humans since Pandora opened that deadly box. Humans seem to have an inbred tendency to fall asleep at the wheel.
For a gal in the vanguard of many things, I'm also unrepentantly old fashioned. I see nothing worth emulation in criminality. I see nothing to recommended generalized or specific greed. I find no defining boundaries in wealth. I never suspect anyone of being better than they absolutely have to be which translates into few people being half as good as they pretend they are. Money might be the definition of value and/or worth in our society, but it's real value lays only in the convenience it can provide. The contradiction is that money can also be wildly inconvenient, because once people obtain a large amount, the money controls them rather than them controlling the money. Some people get so pushed around, dictated to, and warped by their wealth that they are diminished in every area that is important. At the same time, they are not worthy of either my attention or concern. I am unable to cry for monied people.
So, into this scene of wealth, privilege, illusion, global importance and self aggrandizement comes an example of globalized slime named Bernard Manhoff, with his version of a 1920's pyramid scheme to help the greed filled wealthy fool themselves while he cheats them out of their undeserved money. The best thing that can be said of him is that he is an equal opportunity swindler at play in the fields of international and global finance. One hedge fund manager has committed suicide for losing over a billion dollars of his clients' money and couldn't handle the shame of being so badly duped. Other hedge funds have also been defrauded with less bloody results. Banks, those practitioners of full card Monty on a grandiose sale and bastions of depriving the needy for the betterment of their own wealthy were also targeted for fraud, and lost billions. It is the foundations and charitable trusts that at least deserve a modicum of pity for their losses. One in particular that was heartbreaking was the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. Nothing humane in that swindle.
I laughed at finding the Palm Beach Country Club on the list of losers, but I mourned the loss of shine on the icon that is the Royal Bank of Scotland. After all, the Scots are supposedly the poster children for frugality and vigilance in monetary matters. No more, it seems.
Except for our own government's fraud perpetrated on American taxpayers to the tune of $700 billion plus in bail out money for our incompetent sicon's of industry, the Madoff scandal is the largest rip off in history, yet the man is out on bail. Apologies to Mohammad Ali, but I wonder if Madoff is still floating through life like a butterfly even if he can no long sting like a bee.
And what about the S.E.C. in this sad state of affairs? Where exactly were they, especially after the warnings received about Madoff's scheme in 1999? What were they doing, and who were they doing it to? Will we be faced with another situation where the specific culprit in such a global scam is punished with little more than a slap on the wrist while underlings, like the guy who posed as the auditor of Madoff's business is hung out to dry? Is this an Enron Redux? Do we, as a supposedly progressive, knowledgeable, honorable governmental entity have the courage to truly clean up the mess our government and its regulating bodies helped create or like most things, will we put a 'Snoopy' band-aid of the ouchie and declare the situation resolved?
A comment on one of the blog entries about this fraud suggested that the best and most fitting punishment would be in standing the 70 year old Madoff in front of a brick wall after giving at least six of the defrauded loaded rifles. Considering how Europeanized the full extend of the fraud was, perhaps such a solution would be apt. Or, since Nomura in Japan was another that lost money, might hari kari be allowed? Maybe put him on the 18th green at Palm Beach and drive golf balls at him. Or force him to watch every movie ever made by Steven Spielberg, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick without pause or a bath room break.
Somehow, whatever is ultimately done it will not be enough, if anything is done at all. And if nothing is done or if whatever cage the perpetrator is assigned is swanky and golden the delineation between what happens to the rich and what happens to the poor will again be far too clear. Actually, this situation when compared to the starvation deaths in Africa, the war deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, the 'disgruntlement' deaths because the Arabs and Israelis can't get along, the children who die from lack of care, the old people who waste away in illness than receive no attention, and the minds that are wasted from poor schools, nutritian, and absue is really nothing more than very small potatoes for a bunch of very small if wealthy private investor-type people. It's hard to really give a damn.
posted by kaz at 4:03 PM
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