Wall Street's Economic Crimes Against Humanity

[petertribo]

Wall Street's Economic Crimes Against Humanity is the headline on this Businessweek piece:

Each day's economic news leaves me haunted by Hannah Arendt's ruminations on Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann as she reported on his trial in Jerusalem for The New Yorker 45 years ago. Arendt pondered "the strange interdependence of thoughtlessness and evil" and sought to capture it with her famous formulation "the banality of evil." Arendt found Eichmann neither "perverted nor sadistic," but "terribly and terrifyingly normal."

Remoteness from Reality

He was a new type of criminal, a participant in "administrative massacre" who committed his crimes "under circumstances that make it well-nigh impossible for him to know or to feel that he is doing wrong." Eichmann had no motives other than what Arendt described as "an extraordinary diligence in looking out for his personal advancement…he never realized what he was doing.That such remoteness from reality and such thoughtlessness can wreak more havoc than all the evil instincts taken together," she concluded, "…was, in fact, the lesson one could learn in Jerusalem."

The economic crisis is not the Holocaust but, I would argue, it derives from a business model that routinely produced a similar kind of remoteness and thoughtlessness, compounded by a widespread abrogation of individual moral judgment. As we learn more about the behavior within our financial institutions, we see that just about everyone accepted a reckless system that rewards transactions but rejects responsibility for the consequences of those transactions. Bankers, brokers, and financial specialists were all willing participants in a self-centered business model that celebrates what's good for organization insiders while dehumanizing and distancing everyone else—the outsiders....[my bold]

Shouldn't the individuals whose actions unleashed such devastating consequences be held accountable to these moral standards?

I believe the answer is yes. That in the crisis of 2009 the mounting evidence of fraud, conflicts of interest, indifference to suffering, repudiation of responsibility, and systemic absence of individual moral judgment produced an administrative economic massacre of such proportion that it constitutes an economic crime against humanity. [my bold]

http://www.businessweek.com/managing...319_591214.htm

What next? Might someone actually suggest this is a Massive Crime Wave? Just for starters, that thousands will die because they were impoverished and could not receive proper healthcare and medical treatment?

[ricket]

Re: Wall Street's Economic Crimes Against Humanity

What next? Might someone actually suggest this is a Massive Crime Wave? Just for starters, that thousands will die because they were impoverished and could not receive proper healthcare and medical treatment?

Thousands *do* die and *are* dying because they are impoverished and could not receive proper health care and medical treatment, because some of the same people who said "it was too expensive" and "not feasible" also drove around in BMWs and paid for $1500/hr hookers or spent 5k on bottles of champagne.

So yes, they *are* guilty of crimes against humanity. What's your point?

[kelton56]

Re: Wall Street's Economic Crimes Against Humanity

The economic crisis is not the Holocaust but, I would argue, it derives from a business model that routinely produced a similar kind of remoteness and thoughtlessness, compounded by a widespread abrogation of individual moral judgment. As we learn more about the behavior within our financial institutions, we see that just about everyone accepted a reckless system that rewards transactions but rejects responsibility for the consequences of those transactions. Bankers, brokers, and financial specialists were all willing participants in a self-centered business model that celebrates what's good for organization insiders while dehumanizing and distancing everyone else—the outsiders....[my bold]

This is a stunning inference which may have wide-ranging repercussions should, at some point, a modern-day economic equivalent of the Nurnberg trials be impanelled.

Having been employed over the last decade by two Very Large Sysytemically Important Financial Institutions Which Shall Not Be Named (but not at present), I can assure you that at the trenches level, we all were exercising "extraordinary diligence in looking out for (our) personal advancement."

Thinking about the broader- and longer-term implications of what we were doing, multiplied as it was by orders of magnitude daily, was deemed above our pay grades, and those who unconsciously, consciously or conscientiously objected to what we perceived to be the consequent harm of our collective actions quickly were rounded up, branded as malcontents and losers, and, in the absence of contrition and denial of the heresy, were dispatched from the organization, and good riddance.

What a great post...thanks.

(p.s. - As one of the conscientious objectors, I resigned, twice.)

[due_indigence]

Re: Wall Street's Economic Crimes Against Humanity

Because Arendt refused to caricaturize and demonize, she suffered much from the Jewish comunity. In fact her everyman almost anti-climactic protrayal of evil is far more ominous than the comic book variety, if for no other reason than it is practically invisible and potentially omnipresent like a colorless odorless gas.

The genius of the current system is that everyone got rich by participating in little white lies of omission. There are no suitcases of ill-gotten gains passed underneath tables. Because responsilbity was masterfully defused between realtor-loan originator-appraiser-aggregator-pension fund operator-MBS salesman-rating agency-quasi governmental agency...

The genius of segmentation and originate-and-distribute is that all participants have plausible deniability. No ONE has responsibility for the whole picture.

[Penguin]

Re: Wall Street's Economic Crimes Against Humanity

I knew that name from somewhere... took me a moment to figure out from where.

From Spengler October 2007:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_.../IJ02Dj10.html

... What we have witnessed in the financial markets is not so much the mediocrity of evil, in political theorist Hannah Arendt's infelicitous phrase, but rather the evil of mediocrity. Most people have no special gifts or insight, no skills or powers that distinguish them from the mass of their fellows about them. They hope that the institutions to which they belong will care for them, and that if they do more or less what everyone around them does, they will not be singled out for ill fortune. Ordinary people are capable of great things under conditions of adversity - but for this to happen, someone must arrange the adversity.

The operative deadly sin appears to be not greed, but rather sloth.

END QUOTE

Spengler has an amazing grasp of the greater motions and movements of nations and peoples. He is one of my favorites.... But I humbly submit that he may have erred in his judgment on this one.

Interesting post. Thanks for putting it up.

Will

[Serge_Tomiko]

Re: Wall Street's Economic Crimes Against Humanity

Thousands *do* die and *are* dying because they are impoverished and could not receive proper health care and medical treatment, because some of the same people who said "it was too expensive" and "not feasible" also drove around in BMWs and paid for $1500/hr hookers or spent 5k on bottles of champagne.

So yes, they *are* guilty of crimes against humanity. What's your point?

Thousands of people die every day for no reason at all. What's YOUR point? That all productive human activity must go towards eliminating poverty and providing free health care to the entirety of the world's population and the huge number of children they continue to have?

I'm sorry, but I would rather have world war than devote my life to supporting an exponentially increasing world population. Certainly, war is much more exciting than the boring and slavish life you seem to want us all to live less we be charged with "crimes against humanity".

[ricket]

Re: Wall Street's Economic Crimes Against Humanity

Thousands of people die every day for no reason at all. What's YOUR point? That all productive human activity must go towards eliminating poverty and providing free health care to the entirety of the world's population and the huge number of children they continue to have?

I'm sorry, but I would rather have world war than devote my life to supporting an exponentially increasing world population. Certainly, war is much more exciting than the boring and slavish life you seem to want us all to live less we be charged with "crimes against humanity".

No, I'm saying that you are relegating the decision of "life or death" to something that you have control over. "No reason at all" is a reason that you had no direct participation in whatsoever. Call it 'fate' if you will. But it's not your choice to make. To do so, makes you guilty of murder in the eyes of any religion, even from an agnostic, non-religious, natural rights-based perspective.

If you are standing around with a group of people, and someone shoots another person in your group, and you just look away and don't call the cops nor do anything about it...the only conclusion that I can come to is that you are one of them. You are complicit in the crime. Plain and simple. To willingly deny someone the right to life, even by non-direct action, but full knowledge of exactly how to prevent it from occurring makes you just as guilty as having committed the crime itself. People go to jail every day for conspiracy to murder, even if they never even pulled the trigger. This is the parallel that I am demonstrating.

[bpr]

Re: Wall Street's Economic Crimes Against Humanity

Thousands *do* die and *are* dying because they are impoverished and could not receive proper health care and medical treatment...

I concur. Have you heard of Stephen Bezruchka? Here's an interview. There's a stunning lecture here, if you're willing to pay the $5.

[Rajiv]

Re: Wall Street's Economic Crimes Against Humanity

Here are two lectures by Stephen Bezruchka

Stephen Bezruchka teaches at the University of Washington and works as an emergency room physician in Seattle. His particular areas of research are population health and societal hierarchy and its application to health. He is author of numerous articles and essays. His most recent contribution is to Sickness and Wealth, a collection of essays on the effects of global corporatization on health.

Transcript of the lecture - Health & Wealth

Is America Driving You Crazy?

58 min

How the Global Health Experiment Will be Seen Decades From Now

73 min

Watch How the Global Health Experiment Will be Seen Decades From Now in Educational  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

[petertribo]

Re: Wall Street's Economic Crimes Against Humanity

To willingly deny someone the right to life, even by non-direct action, but full knowledge of exactly how to prevent it from occurring makes you just as guilty as having committed the crime itself. People go to jail every day for conspiracy to murder, even if they never even pulled the trigger. This is the parallel that I am demonstrating.

That was one of the points. We have a Crime Wave with no Prosecutions. For years, in America we have heard the Political Drumbeat of a War On Crime and politicians have successfully used that to line their pockets. Now when we are faced with this massive Crime Wave, the resources of Government are not devoted to prosecuting the criminals but to allow them to loot the Treasury. Some people feel comfortable with that I do not.

As far as denial of Healthcare, if you rob me of my money to purchase healthcare I need to survive and I die then that is murder. It has nothing to do with social benefits or anything else.

Another point I will make is that I only mentioned healthcare. What about somene who is impoverished by these FIRE thieves and has children. They will be denied many advantages they might have had. There are numerous side effects resulting from Crime. I'm not going to list them all here.

Congratulations to Shoshana Zuboff for writing the piece and puncturing the Dam of Denial. I wish some Financial Analysts would start to address the issue of a Criminal Economy, that is an Economy where there is massive criminal activity and no prosecutions.

[petertribo]

Re: Wall Street's Economic Crimes Against Humanity

kelto56 wrote:

(p.s. - As one of the conscientious objectors, I resigned, twice.)

I left two jobs myself because of very dubious if not criminal activity. I think the US Economy is rampant with immoral, unethical activity which may violate either civil or criminal law. This is a very significant point. I believe much economic activity is simply predatory and non-productive. So, much of our GDP may just be phony, passing $$$ back and forth with no real productivity taking place. This was recently confirmed by Krugman saying that there has been no actual rise in GDP for years. So, why aren't Economists writing about all this predation?

due_indigence wrote:

The genius of segmentation and originate-and-distribute is that all participants have plausible deniability. No ONE has responsibility for the whole picture.

If true, this is a really disturbing development. I believe much of the origin for our current dilemma lies in the S&L Disaster. At that time, there were few prosecutions. The Criminals took their gains and expanded their operations. As you suggest, the Criminals then have refined their operations to make detection and prosecution difficult. This is a really big subject, too bad no Economist or Criminologist is focusing on it. For investment purposes this question arises: if the Criminals are not rooted out, how can one safely invest in such a system? Sure explains why some folks are running to cash, commodities, alternatives.

On Stephen Bezruchka.

I read the transcript of his talk. He really hits on a lot of ugly issues America does not want to address. I believe Healthcare mimics the same corruption which we have on Wall Street. A system degraded by the same Sharks and fast-buck artists. It is really FIREAH, include Auto and Healthcare. I know one retired doctor. Mention Wall Street and the sparks fly. I know another doctor who doubts the efficacy of many of the new drugs produced. He relies mostly on older drugs and treatments. Just like toxic securities, he doubts the quality and research.

So, in Healthcare, we have the same FIRE characteristics, corruption and debasement of the product. Even if you can afford Healthcare, how can you know you are getting good treatment as opposed to the treatment which is the most profitable for them?

[World Traveler]

Re: Wall Street's Economic Crimes Against Humanity

I watched the entire video "Is America Driving You Crazy?". It's a very good and thought-provoking video. I agree with his thesis that many of the U.S.'s mental health issues can only be solved when we re-engineer ourselves into a society that no longer tickles wealth upward and is no longer run by the few elite (a.k.a. oligarchs) for the benefit of those few elite.

The question I've always asked is: How can we expect a kid growing up in poverty to become a fine, upstanding citizen when Mom and Dad are either working so much they barely see their children or where Mom/Dad have given into drugs, alcohol, and a dysfunctional lifestyle? When their neighborhoods and schools are decaying and there a few good local job options? When working adults can barely support themselves on minimum wage, let alone a family?

I also like his analysis of psychiatric drugs in the U.S. I was a child at school in the 1950's, when no one used Ritalin. Yet the teachers maintained order and the children learned. Why do so many kids today need Ritalin? Pharmaceutical profits?

His comparison of the U.S. mental health and societal values to those of other countries where mental illness is far less prevalent was particularly telling. Thanks for posting!

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: Wall Street's Economic Crimes Against Humanity

It is really FIREAH, include Auto and Healthcare. I know one retired doctor.

What's the "Auto" part of this scam? I now understand what "FIRE" stands for, thanks to iTulip, and I couldn't agree with you more on the "Healthcare" scams, but I'm unsure what you have in mind with your reference to "Auto" in this context.

[petertribo]

Re: Wall Street's Economic Crimes Against Humanity

Have you read The Reckoning (1986) by David Halberstam?:

Although "The Reckoning" is a twenty year old book, its message has never been truer than it is now as America's once leading automobile industry is heading for deep decline. In my opinion, Halberstam's book should be re-titled as "The Warning." By the time this book was published in 1986, the United States had already gone through two devastating energy crises orchestrated by OPEC. While Ford Motors had experienced some success with its energy-conscious Ford Taurus, the production emphasis was still on gas guzzling trucks and luxury vehicles. While praising Nissan and other Japanese car companies' business model of affordability, fuel economy and quality control, he doesn't completely let them off the hook in his description of Nissan's union strife in the fifties.

In Halberstam'a own words, he describes why he wrote the book: "one day I was on a book tour and I kept noticing that Chrysler was almost gone, Ford was in trouble, all those great American companies were (gone). ... The Japanese were taking cars, which was an American signature, and doing better at them. I didn't see it as a business story. I saw it as a social cultural story."

I remember years ago you would often hear: "One in seven jobs in the US depends on the AUTO industry." AUTO drove the American economy. The manufacturing itself and all the feeder industries. All the car Infrastructure subsidized by Governments. All the tax and other Legislation needed to give AUTO a priveleged place in transportation. The mandated Insurance. The financing of the autos themselves. Then all the Financing needed for all of these elements. Yes, I put AUTO right there with the FIRE folks. Just like FIRE it got too Big with too much Political and Economic Muscle. "What's good for GM, is good for America." Well, no.

An interesting connection from Halberstam is that he also wrote The Best And The Brightest, the US failure in Vietnam and that via Robert McNamara, President of Ford who became Secretary of the War Racket. I guess AUTO had lots of Muscle in those days. He was going to put the US War Racket on a solid accounting, number crunching, winning basis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McNamara
We see how all that turned out. Thirty-five years later we see another War experiment of American business has turned to the same Ashes. So the Business Class did not do so well then and even worse now.

And like the failed FIRE folks, the proposal is to turn AUTO into ZOMBIES just like them. Fitting, they should all end up roaming the same graveyard feeding off the Treasury Trough.

However AUTO is not dead be any means. TOKYO now seems to have a good foothold politically in the US South. Just another price Americans pay for their lavish lifestyle. So, we can still be held hostage by AUTO except the PERPS will be based in a foreign country.

Too bad Halberstam is not alive to give us an updated account of the US AUTO Disaster and those many connections over the years into the FIRE Boardrooms.

[petertribo]

Re: Wall Street's Economic Crimes Against Humanity

Glenn Greenwald has an article at Salon connecting US War Crimes to Financial Crimes. This develops the Crime Theme:

The treatment in our justice system of ordinary citizens ("a nation of jailers") and our elites (immunity from lawbreaking) could not be more disparate. We have (and are continuing to solidify) exactly the state of affairs that political science literature and the American government itself have long self-righteously warned other countries is the prime enabler for tyrannical rot: a two-tiered system of justice which exempts the country's elites from accountability. I've previously cited this 1998 essay in Foreign Affairs entitled "The Rule of Law Revival," by Thomas Carothers of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, because it so perfectly expresses long-standing Western lectures to the "developing world" about the need for a robust rule of law for a nation's ruling elite class:

LEGAL BEDROCK

THE RULE of law can be defined as a system in which the laws are public knowledge, are clear in meaning, and apply equally to everyone. They enshrine and uphold the political and civil liberties that have gained status as universal human rights over the last half-century. . . . Perhaps most important, the government is embedded in a comprehensive legal framework, its officials accept that the law will be applied to their own conduct, and the government seeks to be law-abiding. . . .

The primary obstacles to such reform are not technical or financial, but political and human. Rule-of-law reform will succeed only if it gets at the fundamental problem of leaders who refuse to be ruled by the law. Respect for the law will not easily take root in systems rife with corruption and cynicism, since entrenched elites cede their traditional impunity and vested interests only under great pressure.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwa...ons/index.html