There is an old song by a guy named Ben Harper, a successful, engaging and occasionally electrifying singer-songwriter from California’s Inland Valley, called “Walk Away.” It could provide the supremely perfect soundtrack for this report from the Wall Street Journal.
sometimes, sooooometimes, you just have to walkaway, walk away
Anyway I wonder what reaction commenters would have if I said, they are only emulating the principle and sentiment of the banks and securities firms.
Comments (3)
"...they are only emulating the principle and sentiment of the banks and securities firms."
Well, my first reaction would be: *precisely so.*
And my second reaction would be to wonder: what did our grand-parents do to deserve grand-children like us?
"Ms. Richey's family of five used some of the money to buy season tickets to Disneyland, and plans to take a Carnival cruise to Mexico in March. Mr. Fernandez takes his girlfriend out to dinner more frequently. 'We're saving lots of money,' Ms. Richey says."
Too funny. Too sad.
Posted by steve burton | December 12, 2009 2:42 PM
" MR. VOLCKER: A few years ago I happened to be at a conference of business people, not financial people, and I was making a presentation. The conference was being addressed by a very vigorous young investment banker from London who was explaining to all these older executives how their companies would be dust if they did not realize the joys of financial innovation and financial engineering, and that they had better get with it.
I was listening to this, and I found myself sitting next to one of the inventors of financial engineering. I didn't know him, but I knew who he was and that he had won a Nobel Prize, and I nudged him and asked what all the financial engineering does for the economy and what it does for productivity.
Much to my surprise, he leaned over and whispered in my ear that it does nothing—and this was from a leader in the world of financial engineering. I asked him what it did do, and he said that it moves around the rents in the financial system—and besides, it's a lot of intellectual fun..."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704825504574586330960597134.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLESecondNews
I don't get the season tickets - why anyone who lives in the Antelope Valley would want to drive to Anaheim more than once a year or so is beyond me but both parties have realized five figure gains in income so a few dinners are no big deal and helpful to local restaurants and cruises to Mexico are not all that much from Southern California.
The alternative to bankruptcy and its analogues is peonage. Tut-tutting over a few frivolous expenditures while ignoring the billions pocketed by the folks who made it all possible misses the point.
Volcker's comment strikes at the heart of things. Call it usury or rent-seeking, we would be better off if we taxed it out of existence.
Posted by al | December 14, 2009 2:49 PM
I've called plenty of what laid to waste the economy of this country usury. The banks and financiers and government have set up a system where it is quite perfectly rational to renege on a mortgage debt. The people, no less than the government, are debasing our currency.
But the proper response to this fact is not, as our leaders have done, to simply embrace all that folly, on both sides, and pretend like nothing else will go wrong. Actually reality is going to hit again -- probably harder. The proper response to is to work toward some recognition of reality. Instead we go the other way.
Posted by Paul J Cella | December 14, 2009 4:34 PM