Policing TARP: I Confess

[BadJuju]

Re: Policing TARP: I Confess

if you doubt that just look around here for examples.

Indeed, sir! Thanks for the input.

[astonas]

Re: Policing TARP: I Confess

This really bothers me. I am a pretty simple guy that just wants to lead a decent life. I live at home with my mum as I always have. I spend pretty much all day at home on my computer. I don't think any of that has to come from exploiting others. I've been trying to do what I can to cut my consumption, be more responsible, and try to understand things. I don't understand why people have to be the way they are. I'm just your average 26-year-old guy. If I am able to understand a lot of the problems we face, why can't the people in charge understand them? Unlike most of you, I don't really have much of anything beyond my 1 oz of gold and 15 oz of silver. I feel kind of powerless here. Always been a bit of a hopeless screwup, but always been optimistic. Hard to be optimistic when so many people around you want to watch the world burn.

"There are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know."– John Heywood, 1546, by way of Jonathan Swift

The sad truth is that those who are in charge can understand, but manage not to, by remaining (either consciously or subconsciously) ignorant of the facts.

As far as politicians are concerned, for example, it is hardly convenient to be caught lying about scandals to their electorate. So a fair portion of the job of a political staffer is deciding what items do or do not require their bosses' attention. And these no doubt have very clear instructions: the less, the better. If the boss doesn't know something, they can always express outrage when it comes up. If it turns out to be something they should have known, they can always express outrage about the person who should have told them. But if it is documented to be something they knew and understood, well, then they have only their character to blame when the truth comes out.

So no politician (who is seeking re-election) wants to be caught actually understanding something. That not only limits their ability to function politically, it is dangerous to their ability to get re-elected.

The term you may be looking for now is "perverse incentives." These form the core of our governmental and industrial influences, from Eisenhower's "military-industrial complex" to today's financial sector regulatory capture. An objective evaluation of the way the system works leads one to conclude that the best choice a regulator or official can make today (measured in terms of their own well-being) is to be as corrupt as it is possible to get away with. This is as true of elected officials as it is of appointed ones.

These incentives also ensure that those who choose another path are in a sufficiently small minority to be drowned out. This is why I feel it is important to give voice to muckrakers like Bill Black, even though his vigorous attacks lead him to be seen as somewhat of a "fringe" character. It is not really that he is saying something that is new to us by now. It is more that I hope that his words will be spread as broadly as possible, and repetition, even in a more closed community like this one, can help with that.

In such a world, incremental reform is impossible. Only a sweeping, perhaps even revolutionary, change is capable of altering the game. For that to occur, there must be real and widespread anger in the populace. As the scandals cascade onward, this is a condition we are getting closer to. Whether it becomes great enough to cause positive change remains to be seen. Whether it goes too far, causing more harm than good, is an even bigger question.