The best part of it all is that these same people in an incestuous circle, rotate through the academic world, where they are paid millions in "consulting" fees and board directorships with investment banks and firms, then go on to work in the federal government, and then go to work directly for the investment banks as well. After a time, they just go through the circle again and again, if it should get a little too hot in one area, they move to the next, like the figures in a cuckoo clock of financial insanity.
Let's say, for example, that you are the CEO of Goldman Sachs. Before that, you could have taught business at Harvard or Northwestern, and after that, you could be appointed Treasury Secretary. You continue to spout the same unethical shit in each of your positions, but that's OK, because your net worth in ten short years is now between $50 million and $500 million, depending on how much you managed to sock away. The best part of it all is that money? It came from taxpayers, homeowners and investors that the government didn't protect because there is no regulations on these thieves. How could there be? It's the fox guarding the henhouse, kiddies, and no fox is stupid enough to give the hens a hand. Silly American public, do you believe in fairy tales? Apparently.
Take a look at these bozos - Henry Paulson, Timothy Geithner, Ben Bernanke, Larry Summers. These are just four the architects of fraud who continue to rotate as above, and it doesn't matter who's President, they play along, whether it's Reagan, Bush 1, Bush 2, Clinton or Obama. You'd like to think that a president you voted for has your best interests at heart, or at least the economic interests of the country. Silly rabbit. They don't give a shit about you and never did. It's all about the Lincoln bedroom and power, so get over it. Politicians of any stripe and investment bankers are made from the same clay and dine at the same table, and you can bet your life it's a lot fucking better than yours. Change you can believe in? O gullible voter, take a look at who's Treasury secretary right now. Also take a look at how many people or firms in the financial industry who clearly engaged in this fraud meltdown have been arrested or prosecuted: ZERO.
They did, however, get big cash bonuses and even better job opportunities.
What's ultimately the most discouraging is the insidiousness of it, and that these same snakes are teaching business practices and ethics in the most prestigious colleges and universities in the country, (while collecting millions at the same time as hired guns, but there's no rule of disclosure of conflict of interest, isn't that nice?), and publishing papers paid for by banks, financial firms and governments while they "teach". Any hope there is that honesty, ethics, common sense and compassion could leak into business, finance, industry or government is a feeble one, not only now, but for generations to come, since the future leaders are being "educated" and brainwashed by those who don't possess those virtues. Business schools have followed law schools down the same path. Gerry Spencer, the rogue trial lawyer from Wyoming, once warned that law schools have become simply breeding grounds for corporate clones that prop up the infrastructure of legal robbery for business and insurance companies. He was right, and so is Charles Ferguson.
What to do, what to do. My first thought is retreat to a cabin on an island in the Northwest or a beach in Honduras, write books, raise dogs and tomatoes, eat well and drink vodka. Not a bad plan, if a copout, but thanks to these bastards I can't afford it now. So, instead I'm writing this so maybe somebody out there will read it, investigate and start a movement to make a difference, or at least educate people. Like they say, once you know, you have a responsibility to act. Count me in when you do, but I'm no stranger to lost causes and have become too jaded and le tired for executive leadership.
You know where to find me.
