"The revelation that Bernard Madoff — brilliant investor (or so almost everyone thought), philanthropist, pillar of the community — was a phony has shocked the world, and understandably so. The scale of his alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme is hard to comprehend.
Yet surely I’m not the only person to ask the obvious question: How different, really, is Mr. Madoff’s tale from the story of the investment industry as a whole?"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/opinion/19krugman.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
I truly hope that current and future generations learn the lessons being taught by the economic fiasco we are witnessing unfold. Check out this brilliantly written article by Paul Krugman, 2008 Nobel Prize winner in Economics and NYT op-ed contributor.
How unbelievably easy it is for Krugman to write an essay like this now. What a jerk. Where was he 5, 10, or 20 years ago when we actually needed him? Screw the pundits. It didn't take a genius to realize these bankers were taking everybody for a ride and adding no value to society.
ReplyDeleteThese "experts" like Krugman don't know shit. I don't care if he has a Nobel Prize. His record on the financial mess isn't any better than the bankers themselves. Why isn't there more public accountability and record keeping on journalists? The New York Times wasn't there to give us the facts when Bush and Co railroaded the war through. And Krugman and pals weren't around when Wall St and Co. was running ragged and stealing left and right. Not to mention the whole bailout. I have absolutely no respect for anyone right now who's not speaking about their own errors in judgment on this matter.
OK. I hear you, man. Back when I chose to pursue a career in engineering instead of finance (even though I knew it would earn me far less $$$) I did so mainly because I wanted to contribute something that I considered to be of true value to society. Many of my classmates, who had been fully well-educated in engineering, got dollar signs in their eyes, moved to New York City and began to make (perfectly legal) livings in the financial sector. I'm honestly not sure where they're at now. Maybe they'll be getting back into engineering?
ReplyDeleteAs far as sideline commentators like Krugman are concerned, sure hindsight is always 20/20; but foresight is generally ruled insanity when it flies in the face of something that's making a lot of $$$ for certain people (who are also the ones in power, and very often those in charge of the NYTs and CNNs and FOXs of the world) -- Intelligent insights are ignored, suppressed, denied, or maybe just plain nonexistent when there's money to be earned. It's a complex web of social acceptance and political permittance that allows people to trudge into the darkness while earning themselves "value" even when they may recognize deep in their souls that there is some longer-term detriment taking place. It's been proven time and again that people aren't all that good at long-term risk assessment.
A classic example that I think parallels the latest financial free-for-all is what's been going on with fossil fuels since they first started being burned to fuel the Industrial Revolution.
One legend has it that the term "sabotage" was borne from the Luddite's practice of throwing shoes into the automated machinery which they saw robbing their jobs. They thought they saw the writing on the wall of a less sustainable future being sowed. They may have been right. BUT they were persecuted like crazy. They were outcasts. They were beaten and jailed and killed. They sure weren't earning themselves any positive fame in the eyes of the ruling class. And did they achieve their goal of stopping the machines? I drove a car today.
Whether Krugman spoke up too late or not is irrelevant at this point. I posted his thoughts because they are thoughts that I've harbored long before he published them, and I happened to like how he stated them. That's my error perhaps for not clarifying that more.
My opinion is that the future will start to brighten if we begin to value real "development" over "growth". You know. We've been talking about it -- process over product. Excellence in process will yield excellence in outcome. We honestly don't have time to waste on scapegoating anyone anymore.
Let's use our words to start building the future we want to have.
One way to start doing that is to use our words only for positivity. It's hard when times get dark, but I really do think that we can begin to steer the big ship towards the light if we start to get real and look ahead and configure our words into the shape of the future that we'd like to live in.
As for my sharing of Krugman's thoughts, I'm glad I did, because we're now engaged in a healthy dialogue about something worthwhile :)