Terror
The war on terror continues. Despite some very thoughtful and well-reasoned posts at sites I greatly respect, tonight I’m celebrating the latest step in the war on terror: the indictment of Martha.
Overshadowed by the War on Islamic Terror, the other war on terror has languished. In the 1990s a group of elitists focused on personal gain decided to ignore the law and defraud millions of Americans of their savings. Without thought for the lives they were destroying, they lied and cheated and created a noble fiction to justify their plunder. It’s a new economy. We don’t need products or deliverables. We just need illusion. The illusions of stability, of income, of openness and of growth, inter alia, served their purposes and they prospered.
Their only obstacles: little laws. Really old laws at that. Paternalistic laws that talk about the old economy, not the new economy. The Crash and the Depression were old economy things; Infinite Growth was a natural byproduct of the new economy and thus those laws passed by our grandparents’ parents were as obsolete as the bricks and mortar of the buildings they were written in.
The problem not seen by the accountants (and too many lawyers): the laws defined the rules of the game. Without the laws, the equity market is transformed from something akin to a game of chess to something closer to a game of poker. In chess all the pieces and players are known, and all the players can make informed decisions; in poker the cards are hidden and the players make their decisions on limited knowledge and the ability to read a bluff. It’s the difference between investing and gambling. With the dark forces running loose, the Enrons and the ArthurAndersons and the Marthas controlled the house. Some people still thought they were playing chess, but in a game where the rooks were illusory, the bishops were really queens and pawns could be hidden up one’s sleeve.
Participating in the stock market became as intelligent an investment as gambling in a casino where you have to trust the dealer to tell you what cards you’ve drawn. Imagine sending money to someone you don’t know and trusting them to tell you whether you’ve won or lost without oversight or accountability. Anyone who enjoys this though should feel free to send me $20 via PayPal and I’ll deal up a few hands of Blackjack. Results will be e-mailed to the losers within 48 hours, guaranteed.
But back to my rant: the terrorists of Wall Street showed as little concern for their victims as their Islamic brethren did. At least a conman generally picks a target with money. These people looted the aging pensioners and retirement funds with the same glee as they took from the large banks and corporations. It was the financial equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction. Impossible to responsibly aim and resulting in wanton destruction of guilty deserving and innocent alike.
While Martha may not be the worst of the lot, she is one of the most visible and the actions she’s alleged to have done are the same as theirs. She allegedly put her own personal profits above her partners’ and lied for personal gain. She sold a product with a defect allegedly known only to her and her elitist cohorts; a defect that rendered the merchandise worthless.
I’m not convinced that these laws are right. I think the word ‘paternalistic’ above was pretty damn accurate. But I won’t play the game if I don’t know the rules. Right now I don’t trust the other players in the market, think the house has no oversight whatsoever, and havn’t been in the market for over two years.
I’ve lost coworkers to the Islamists. But I’ve had more acquaintances lose their life savings and jobs because of the Wall Streetists. Statistically I’m more likely to be destitute and homeless then to be tortured for my cultural upbringing or personal beliefs. It’s much more likely I’ll die in a household accident than in a terrorist hijacking or bombing. And thanks to the WallStreetists, the health insurance I’ll need if the Islamists ever make it to California is barely affordable for me and unaffordable for countless others. The reality is that my fears and concerns focus on the economy, not some pathetic third-worlders with delusions of relevance, because the economy is what threatens me day-to-day. That is my terror.
I don’t know if Martha is guilty. If she is I hope she rots in a simply but tastefully decorated cell for a long, long time. If not, maybe she’ll use her vast wealth and new experiences to lobby for reforms of a criminal justice system that destroys defendants financially long before the right to a fair trial can ever become relevant (yes, that’s the former public defender getting a jab in). Either way there are still a lot of WallStreetists running loose out there.
