I admit that I have a deep revulsion to banker/brokers. I can't help it. I worked on the sell side for 6 years and I know the beast intimately. Call me a reformed smoker I suppose. Sure many of the people who work at broker/dealers are “nice” people, but they are either don't care about the outcome to their customers or they are wilfully blind; either way, not much to respect. A drug dealer is a drug dealer even if they wear a nice suit. Remember Martin Sheen’s character in “Wall street” and how he warned his son that fine wine and art collections don't mean you aren't hanging with moral reprobates.
Until one of them gets arrested or sued of course; notice the way star-traders for financial institutions become “rogue” traders when things go the wrong way or an immoral practice is finally revealed to the public. It’s a vicious business; dog eat dog. Many of the star finance brokers that were buying exotic cars and building mansions 3 years ago are now desperately trying to sell them for pennies on the dollar in falling markets. Perhaps this is fitting reciprocity. It will always be thus. Watch for the same cycle to play out a few years from now.
Worst of all I think, is the social status that these firms and individuals are bestowed in our society. If they earn enormous sums and inhabit high end real estate, they are assumed to be upstanding citizens. Yikes. Most people are easily impressed; just the appearance of wealth is often enough for a character reference; a board appointment, or a leadership role in government. My greatest disappointment with the Obama administration to date has been their incestuous entanglement with the investment sales establishment. All of the key financial advisors to this administration were key players in the financial implosion that went before. Obama has left the wolves in charge of the sheep. I had hoped he would have the moral fortitude to resist this tradition.
Nonetheless professionalism and civil society ask that one take the high road in our commentary and steer clear of name calling where possible. Once in a while though someone breaks convention and speaks plainly on the topic. Sure few will remember the message after this most recent financial meltdown has passed, but plain talk now can be very cathartic as shown in this recent interview:
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Having read Matt Taibbi's Goldman Sachs takedown in Rolling Stone and similar articles, I found Max Keiser's plain talk wonderfully cathartic. Thanks for posting the clips, Danielle.
I too had hoped for better things from Obama, but the writing was on the wall when he named Larry Summers as his chief economic adviser last November.
Cathartic, perhaps.
I fear though a good deal of his material is populist rhetoric bordering on hyperboles, although there is no doubt legitimacy to what Keiser is presenting, particularly in regard to Goldman.
Bernanke? Geithner? Financial terrorists? All I see is Bernanke standing with 'his hat in hand' before Congress periodically and being lambasted. Geithner was not the first pick for Treasury Secretary and was seemingly given the job by way of default. Their jobs haven't been fun.
Regardless of the merits of these men's actions, they'll only be saturated by its drawbacks from the pundits, like Keiser, who can say what they choose for their beliefs will carry no serious consequence. Perhaps he'll be right, as he has in the past. Five years ago he predicted Fannie and Freddie Mac's demise though means of “derivative-wielding Wall Street types.”
As Keiser, himself, might agree in order for you to be an effective critic, you perhaps must be part of the establishment itself for a few years, as he was as a Wall Street broker.
Perhaps this was Obama's logic.
http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=a2X3hNaWcbeg — Rather witty, I think.
Oracle, link doesn't work, please recheck.