Greedy Capitalists Hogging Wealth Are Not Causing Income Inequality

[finehoe]

So the problem... as many of us have said all along... is government.

You've almost got it...the problem is government run by and for the rich and corporate interests.

[finehoe]

As long as we address one side, we address nothing.

Exactly.  The ideological fantasy that government is the problem, and simply getting rid of it is the answer, is a great propaganda slogan for white collar criminals to promote, but it makes little sense in the real world of flawed human beings and a persistent rogue element in any society.

For it is the constant weakening of regulations by the banks and their lobbyists that led to the financial crisis and the looting of the public trust.   If the criminals have corrupted the policeman, one does not get rid of the police department as a solution, because that is to fulfil the very intent of the criminal element in the first place.  One reforms what has been corrupted, and prosecutes the criminals more vigorously.

The problem is the weakening of government by corruption. And the solution is reform, not more of what went wrong with the rule of law, replacing it with lawlessness.

The danger is that when, in the name of libertarian reform or some other misguided anarchist movement, the laws are knocked down, and the social fabric is torn, very often the worst of us, the truly ruthless opportunists, put forward their 'strong men' or a 'great leader' to bring back order and act as the law, or merely preside over the law of the jungle.

And then begins the real descent into hell.

[BridgeTroll]

The ideological fantasy that government is the problem, and simply getting rid of it is the answer

You are mis stating the fantasy AND the answer.  Big, bloated, expensive, government is the problem.... and making it smaller and more accountable is the answer.  No one... except some loons at the fringes of the left and right talk about getting rid of government.

the banks and their lobbyists

You mention the awful "banks and their lobbyists".  I guess we are referring to "corporate lobbyists" only.  Farmers clearly have lobbyists... so do environmentalists, gun lobby, anti-gun lobby, cheese lobby, green lobby, gay lobby, steel lobby.  Hell... for every single issue there is a lobby.  Outlaw em all?  Just some?  Only the ones we agree with?

[urbanlibertarian]

Exactly.  The ideological fantasy that government is the problem, and simply getting rid of it is the answer, is a great propaganda slogan for white collar criminals to promote, but it makes little sense in the real world of flawed human beings and a persistent rogue element in any society.

The ideological fantasy that government is the answer is a great propaganda slogan for well-meaning do-gooders to promote but it makes little sense in the real world when it will always be composed of flawed human beings who try as they may cannot protect us from the persistent rogue element in society and who in the process of trying to protect us take away more and more of our personal freedom.

[finehoe]

^^So you are of the opinion that no law enforcement mechanism is needed in modern society?

[urbanlibertarian]

^^So you are of the opinion that no law enforcement mechanism is needed in modern society?

Law enforcement should be for violence, theft, fraud and coercion and that should be primarily at the state and local level.

[finehoe]

You mention the awful "banks and their lobbyists".  I guess we are referring to "corporate lobbyists" only. 

This thread is about 'greedy capitalists' so of course I mention banks.  When someone starts a post on agricultural subsidies, then I'll mention farmers.

Law enforcement should be for violence, theft, fraud and coercion and that should be primarily at the state and local level.

Have not the banks commited theft, fraud and coercion?  How are the states and localities dealing with it?  By declaring bankruptcy?  http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-14/jefferson-county-bankruptcy-a-blow-to-long-suffering-birmingham.html

[BridgeTroll]

So... we should just ban "the bankers lobby"?

[finehoe]

So... we should just ban "the bankers lobby"?

I can only guess that you are being deliberately obtuse.  I've already stated what should be done:  Reform what has been corrupted, and prosecute the criminals more vigorously.

[bill]

So... we should just ban "the bankers lobby"?

I can only guess that you are being deliberately obtuse.  I've already stated what should be done:  Reform what has been corrupted, and prosecute the criminals more vigorously.

And skip on down the lane FEELING oblivious.

The reformers are corrupt and the prosecuters are criminals

[BridgeTroll]

So... we should just ban "the bankers lobby"?

I can only guess that you are being deliberately obtuse.  I've already stated what should be done:  Reform what has been corrupted, and prosecute the criminals more vigorously.

Gee... I guess I could say the same for you. 

Reform what has been corrupted, and prosecute the criminals more vigorously.

This should be a bumper sticker... something everyone agrees with... yet too vague to really discusss...

[finehoe]

Prosecutions for Bank Fraud Fall Sharply
By CATHERINE RAMPELL

Federal prosecutions for financial institution fraud have tumbled over the last decade, despite the recent troubles in the banking sector, according to a new analysis of Justice Department data by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.



This category can refer to crimes committed both within and against banks. Defendants include bank executives who mislead regulators, mortgage brokers who falsify loan documents, and consumers who write bad checks. (Here are some recent cases of bank fraud prosecutions: http://www.irs.treas.gov/compliance/enforcement/article/0,,id=246532,00.html)

During the first 11 months of the 2011 fiscal year, the federal government filed 1,251 new prosecutions for financial institution fraud. If that pace continues, TRAC projects a total of 1,365 prosecutions for the fiscal year. That’s less than half the total a decade ago.

The decline in these new cases stands in contrast to the government’s broader approach to federal criminal prosecutions. Federal prosecutions for other crimes have grown tremendously, with the number of total new prosecutions filed for all federal crimes nearly doubling over the last decade:



http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/prosecutions-for-bank-fraud-fall-sharply/

[buckethead]

Perhaps the Problem lies with the fact that much of what used to be illegal is now legal.

Namely, commingling commercial deposits with investment banking. Throw in some government backed loans and bailouts are a certainty.

It isn't either/or here guys.

I think we could agree that Jon Corzine won't be helping to save investors and depositors from governmental/corporate fraud.

[ronchamblin]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/01/03/bloomberg_articlesLX0Z3W0UQVI9.DTL#ixzz1iR3o5rzs

Thought some might enjoy this interesting artical about the idea of psychopaths in our institutions.

Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- It took a relatively obscure former British academic to propagate a theory of the financial crisis that would confirm what many people suspected all along: The "corporate psychopaths" at the helm of our financial institutions are to blame.

Clive R. Boddy, most recently a professor at the Nottingham Business School at Nottingham Trent University, says psychopaths are the 1 percent of "people who, perhaps due to physical factors to do with abnormal brain connectivity and chemistry" lack a "conscience, have few emotions and display an inability to have any feelings, sympathy or empathy for other people."

As a result, Boddy argues in a recent issue of the Journal of Business Ethics, such people are "extraordinarily cold, much more calculating and ruthless towards others than most people are and therefore a menace to the companies they work for and to society."

How do people with such obvious personality flaws make it to the top of seemingly successful corporations? Boddy says psychopaths take advantage of the "relative chaotic nature of the modern corporation," including "rapid change, constant renewal" and high turnover of "key personnel." Such circumstances allow them to ascend through a combination of "charm" and "charisma," which makes "their behaviour invisible" and "makes them appear normal and even to be ideal leaders."
Stable Environment
Until the last third of the 20th century, he writes, companies were mostly stable and slow to change. Lifetime employment was a reasonable expectation and people rose through the ranks.

This stable environment meant corporate psychopaths "would be noticeable and identifiable as undesirable managers because of their selfish egotistical personalities and other ethical defects."

For Wall Street -- a rapidly changing and highly dynamic corporate environment if there ever was one, especially when the firms transformed themselves from private partnerships into public companies with quarterly reporting requirements -- the trouble started when these charmers made their way to corner offices of important financial institutions.

Then, according to Boddy's "Corporate Psychopaths Theory of the Global Financial Crisis," these men were "able to influence the moral climate of the whole organization" to wield "considerable power."

They "largely caused the crisis" because their "single- minded pursuit of their own self-enrichment and self- aggrandizement to the exclusion of all other considerations has led to an abandonment of the old-fashioned concept of noblesse oblige, equality, fairness, or of any real notion of corporate social responsibility."

Boddy doesn't name names, but the type of personality he describes is recognizable to all from the financial crisis.

He says the unnamed "they" seem "to be unaffected" by the corporate collapses they cause. These psychopaths "present themselves as glibly unbothered by the chaos around them, unconcerned about those who have lost their jobs, savings and investments, and as lacking any regrets about what they have done. They cheerfully lie about their involvement in events, are very convincing in blaming others for what has happened and have no doubts about their own worth and value. They are happy to walk away from the economic disaster that they have managed to bring about, with huge payoffs and with new roles advising governments how to prevent such economic disasters."

'Reasoning Aptitudes'

In closing his short essay, Boddy recognizes that the theory is relatively untested and would benefit from "further development and research" into the "personalities and moral reasoning aptitudes of the leaders" of the companies that got into serious trouble in the financial crisis.

In an e-mail correspondence with me, he said his article has been warmly received and has been downloaded 9,440 times in the past 90 days. "Apparently this is a lot for an academic article and it is more than the next four most-downloaded papers combined," he wrote.

He also has a prescription for how to prevent psychopaths from getting into positions of power on Wall Street and elsewhere.

"Anyone who makes decisions that affect significant numbers of other people, concerning issues of corporate social responsibility or toxic waste, for example, or concerning mass financial markets or mass employment, should be screened to make sure that they are, at the very least, not psychopaths and at most are actually people who care about others," he wrote.  Makes sense to me.

(William D. Cohan, a former investment banker and the author of "Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World," is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

[ronchamblin]

From Huffpost today:

Robert Kuttner: Obama's PopulismCo-founder and co-editor, 'The American Prospect'

"The people who disparage "populism" either have a self-interest in damping down popular comprehension of just who has been wrecking the economy, or they are supporters of a perverse austerity agenda, or they worry that Obama's "populism", more consistently applied, just might work. As for class warfare, it's here. The policies of the past three decades, whether on taxes, de-regulation, outsourcing, the assault on unions, or the deliberate weakening of social insurance, have been top-down class warfare. It's just charming that when progressives begin to show some spine and start fighting back, the Right screams "class warfare!" They should know. The only thing wrong with Obama's populism is that it took him until nearly the year of his re-election to practice it resolutely. More, please."

Excellent.  Looks like the continual pressure of truth is producing more eloquent descriptions of it.  Love it.  To arms.........  verbal of course.  Kill them all................. the lies of course.  Bring forth truth, justice, fairness, and real freedom from economic and political oppression and manipulation.