Bailing Out Greed

We are in a financial crisis, no thanks to our outdated, loop-hole filled financial regulatory system. Of course, we wouldn’t be in any sort of crisis if it wasn’t for the presence of one of the most economically insidious deadly sins: greed.

Oh those poor people cleaning out their desks at Lehman Brothers! My cynical pity is truly reserved for those who made lots of money sinking (in this case, literally) clients’ money into balloon financed, real estate “securities”. Most of these brokers were out to greedily make as much money as they could in the form of commissions for themselves. To say that they really cared about the company they worked for (except for caring about cutthroat competition for promotion within the company) would, I believe, be mangling the truth.

Oh those poor company Presidents and CEOs! Just think what life will be like for you without the day-to-day negotiations over your silver, golden, or platinum parachutes. Think of your loss of satisfaction, knowing that your incomplete quarterly reports which misstated profits resulted in a rise in your stock portfolio, cashed out just before the company imploded. Don’t worry though; there’s another sucker out there ready to hire you at a million times the salary earned by the truly poor clerk in the mail room.

Oh those poor Federal Regulators! Now they actually have to work for a living trying to bail out us citizens... er, I mean bail out those poor financial institution suffering from balloon mortgage hangover. It's not a bad job — regulators have to put out only every seven years or so (how biblical!) when an Enron, Chrysler, or Fannie/Freddie Mac comes along, hat in hand. Parting with our tax dollars must be heart wrenching — or does it energize you and make your heart race with excitement??

Greed cannot be stopped, it can only be regulated and prosecuted. Let’s hope that this current crisis, described by one economist as the worst he has seen since the Great Depression, will encourage tighter regulation, better oversight over our regulators, and more effective prosecution of those who twist, break, and mangle our financial laws and regulations.