Ezra Klein has an interesting article on the WP today. You should stop by and read it. The title of this post is taken from a statement by Dodd about the whole financial restructuring mess the US finds itself in. And something I’ve been saying since I started paying attention to the world around me as an adult, home owner, family builder, business owner, and now former [hopefully returning] student of business. Let me qualify my point of view. I’m a capitalist as much as the next guy, but I don’t feel that I have to, nor do I have the right, to destroy an economy in an effort to make a buck. It is after all, the citizens of the world that are my customers, and I a customer of others. I have an MBA, and I am looking to enter a Doctoral program this year while working on another Master’s degree. I don’t think I’m a slouch when it comes to business, business concepts, and application of the various elements of business.
That being said…
The business doesn’t matter. The banks don’t matter. It is the ethical compass that matters. That compass is set from the top down. If someone violates a tenet of the business culture, they should be fired. Setting up a 50:1 leverage ratio could not have been done except from the top. Now we have what we have. Because of greed and stupidity, maybe even a bit of gullibility. Enough to spread around in an even coat around the world. I’m particularly fond of the fact that I’ve not missed a payment, yet my credit cards are now at anywhere from 3% [one card] on upwards of 28% where most are because well before the law that limited these random increases went into effect, the banks got wind that it was going to happen. So up they ramped.
It will undoubtedly happen again without that compass being set from the top down. Just because policy is in effect to prevent it doesn’t stop someone from finding a way around it. And for all of the naysayers who hate government control, lawyers, and police… remember, these things aren’t in place because people act for the greater good. There is plenty of evidence that suggests that people do what they are told. People do what they want. And regardless of the impact on others, they want to profit from their actions to a greater degree.
Not everyone does this. But those who do are the most active. With their activities, they gain profit, and that profit is funneled back into their domination of a tiny slice of reality. Those who don’t perform as a bad actor, are those who give their money and energy to helping society as a whole. They typically don’t have a lot of money. And money is power and influence. So, they have neither. Except in a smaller segment of reality.
But, on a plant of billions of people, there are a lot of people that fall in a little bit of both segments. Canceling each other out in a balance that is just as cosmic as one can imagine. Everything action has an equal and opposite reaction. Heat transfers to cold until you have balance. Pressures balance themselves out. Break a dam and you will see the water flood out until it is level with the terrain. Good, balances bad.
The course correction is taking place, but it may swing too far to the left in some places, while not removing the harsh impositions of the right. Finding that centrist point is where the pendulum is swinging, back and forth. Will it ever land and stop at that center point? Probably not in my lifetime.
But we definitely need more centrists in government who don’t toe the party lines of either Democratic or Republican beliefs. We need to find the common, and ethical balance point. We’ve gone from…
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
(The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus, 1883)
… to something much simpler. Give us your money.