  |
 |
| |
|
|
|
 Greed Is Not GoodPosted on Mar 24, 2008By Marie Cocco WASHINGTON—“The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be the survival of the un-fittest,” the fictitious shareholders of the phony corporation Teldar Paper are told. Then Gordon Gekko, the ruthless takeover artist depicted in the 1987 movie “Wall Street,” goes on to deliver a memorable soliloquy: “The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed—for lack of a better word—is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. ... And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.” That malfunctioning corporation called the USA is still malfunctioning. At the moment, the cause is a surfeit of greed not seen since the 1980s if, in fact, it ever went away. Our corporate culture has been transformed from one based, legitimately, on the profit motive to one that is based, illegitimately, on elaborate paper-pushing. At its essence, this is a practice of making money from transacting and not from transforming a commodity into a product, or a brilliant idea into something so useful that millions rush to buy it. And when these greedy transactions go bad—as they have in the incomprehensible subprime mortgage mess and, specifically, in the unfolding Bear Stearns imbroglio, greed again carries the day. If the Bear Stearns catastrophe is opaque to most Americans, it is because the business the giant investment bank was conducting was designed that way. The shortest, most oversimplified version of the story is that Bear is neck-high in perilous assets stemming from its role in the sketchy mortgage market and appears unable to meet its own creditors’ demands. So the Federal Reserve engineered what amounts to a public bailout, a transaction smoothed by J.P. Morgan Chase, originally with an offer of about $2 per share to take over Bear Stearns and save it from bankruptcy. You would think such a gesture would be welcomed by the very managers and shareholders who’d driven Bear into the tank. But they balked at the $2 price: “Derisory” is what Joseph Lewis, a billionaire investor, called it, according to Bloomberg News. And so these sharp investors who could not, for the life of them, see that they’d made a lousy investment threatened to block the takeover by finding another suitor or—what else?—by suing to stop it. Now they’ve gotten J.P. Morgan to up its offer to about $10 per share. Greed is still good. Consider those on the other end of the subprime mortgage meltdown, the homeowners—some, by now, former homeowners—who were locked into loans they could not afford, either because of their own misguided financial choices or because these loans were presented to them with predatory and deceptive practices. Those who have not yet been foreclosed have been offered no real way to hold on to the roofs over their heads. They have not had their government bail them out of their bad choices. Indeed, the Bush administration has repeatedly said it will not engineer such a rescue, though in the end it may have to if we are to avoid a Depression-like contagion. We are presented with an ugly portrait of ourselves. The misguided investments of billionaires who kept buying stock in Bear Stearns are given a hand up by the Federal Reserve. Then they demand more, and get it. The misguided homeowners are told to pack up and move. If this picture were just a snapshot of the mortgage implosion, it would be repulsive enough. But it is the same movie we see again and again, as corporate chieftains in search of the cheapest labor move jobs overseas, freeze or eliminate pensions at home and often discard workers who have given their lives to a company. Then the managers, having delivered to shareholders the additional “value” they seek, are rewarded with compensation packages that, in and of themselves, could fund the pensions or the health insurance of more than a few displaced workers. It is no longer enough to blame lax regulation and a political system that has nurtured it. It is no longer enough to blame “globalization,” as if this were some force that we are powerless to tame. We’ve chosen to do nothing to tame it.
The malfunctioning corporation called the USA is just as Gordon Gekko saw it. But it is a corporation that cannot be saved by greed. It is greed run amok that is bringing it to its knees.
Previous item: A Conscientious Objection Next item: The Next 4,000 Elsewhere: . CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.
By Bluestocking, March 26 at 12:58 pm # I think there’s a lot of truth in that comment—but in all honesty, from a global perspective, I think that yardstick could be applied just as well to a large percentage of Americans and not simply the wealthiest among us. Truth be told, when you consider how many people around the world work to keep us supplied with our creature comforts—many of them people who would consider even some of the poorest among us to be living lives of comparative luxury—you come to the realization that most of us without even realizing it reap the benefits of excessive gain at the expense of others. The fact is that many Americans are woefully ignorant when it comes to understanding what life is really like for the majority of people in the world. As a country, we’ve become so accustomed to prosperity that we seem prone to perceive luxuries as necessities. I make an effort to be mindful of this, but even I sometimes forget. How many Americans are in debt right now because they’re spending money they don’t really have to buy things they don’t really need or don’t even use—and why? Who are we *really* trying to please and/or impress—ourselves, or other people? How many of us are doing these things because *we* truly want to, and not simply because our culture constantly tells us that we should? For that matter, how many of us are even encouraged to ask ourselves these questions? Not many, as far as I can tell...in fact, if my own experience is any indication, asking questions like these will prompt some people into accusing you of being un-American! How can it be that we’re one of the most prosperous nations on earth and yet also—judging by the statistics for addictions, eating disorders, rates of behavioral illnesses, prescriptions for psychotropic medications, etc.—one of the least content? I agree with you that there needs to be a line somewhere between the desire to improve one’s lot in life and the desire to acquire for no other reason than its own sake—but I think a plausible argument could be made for the idea that the line is at least a bit further back than many of us might want to think. As George Carlin used to point out, even some of the desire to “improve our lot in life” may simply be an excuse for a desire to have more stuff and a bigger place to put it in. As a rule, what percentage of Americans if asked would say that they see no need and have no desire to raise their standard of living because they’re perfectly content with what they have now? My guess is not that many!
By Ellis, March 26 at 6:24 am # This issue is really about the ceiling and the floor regarding our standard of living. Greed comes into play when the disparity between the two becomes as it is in Amerika today....much too great. All workers must be paid at least a living wage, one that allows them to get the bills paid and accumulate savings. When some members of society are allowed to accumulate too much it destroys the balance and results in others being unable to accumulate enough. Greed is learned behavior. It is possible to instill generosity in people instead. Unfortunately our capitalist system fails to do this and only protects the extremely wealthy. Until people are motivated by PRIDE and not GREED this will always be the case. People must learn to do the best they can in ALL they do, whether there is a buck in it for them or not !!
By Barry Black, March 25 at 6:36 pm # I believe the following applies; Capitalists want to keep all the profits, but share the poverty!
By lawlessone, March 25 at 10:59 am # Shouldn’t some portion of the massive bailout taxpayers are handing the rich, but recklessly self indulgent, investment bankers be used instead to hire more bank regulators to insure we don’t keeping throwing Treasury money away? [more irreverence at resistence-is-possible.blogspot.com]
By Eric L Prentis, March 25 at 8:50 am # Chairman Bernanke and Timothy F. Geithner of the Federal Reserve Bank of NY both have egg on their face after J.P. Morgan raised its price for Bear Stearns from $2 to $10 dollars per share. Without the government’s bail out of Bear Stearns, the company would now be in bankruptcy with a share price of zero. Jamie Dimon is happily handing out US taxpayer money as if it were his own thus demonstrating that both Bernanke and Geithner are naive fools. Where are our politicians when we need them, the Federal Reserve needs to be reorganized.
By A Warren, March 25 at 7:10 am # A doctor or lawyer perform a service in exchange for the money that is paid them. I think the answer to your question is answered by Cocco in the above essay with the following. “At its essence, this is a practice of making money from transacting and not from transforming a commodity into a product, or a brilliant idea into something so useful that millions rush to buy it.” Our society does need to differentiate between a desire to improve ones lot in life with a desire to acquire for the sake of acquiring. I don’t mind that in this world there are people who have jobs that pay more than mine. I realize that different occupations have different values to society. I applaud the efforts of those who work and struggle to obtain the knowledge needed to perform these valuable services. I think they have earned the standard of living associated with higher earning power. However, at the end of the day, how many meals can you eat? How many shirts can you wear at one time. Isn’t there a point were enough is enough? Where the accumulation of money becomes an obsession rather than an effort to improve one’s lot in life. As a society we need to acknowledge that one individuals excessive gain at the expense of many others is wrong.
By DennisD, March 25 at 6:37 am # If greed is good, corporate wellfare is even better at Bu$h Inc., part of the “malfunctioning corporation called the USA.” - GWB.
By weather, March 25 at 3:16 am # Pls. make a profitdon’t be a pig. Yet everyday new algorithms, schemes, stratagies and scams are generated to insure there is a full trough of greed to dine on. Instead of embarking on WPA-like efforts to electrify a fantantastic and expanded rail system through out this country, we’re going backwards.
By Mr tuttle, March 25 at 1:53 am # thank-you for a great article!!This is a thought that has been with me for a long time. “Greed is what will kill us” Greed is a singular selfish thought that over rules everything good and just. Greed is anti-human and ultimately anti-mother earth. It is a sickness like a drug addiction but with capitalism this sickness serves as the engine for our society. It seems to me that this thought is at the heart of our problems. I fear that too many will only understand this looking back at our history, after this course, addiction, broken engine has destroyed the best of this world for greed. Add Your Comment |
|
Newsroom Carnage Continues at The Washington Post
Email
Print
Share
Del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Ma.gnolia
Newsvine
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo
Jump to Comments
Bazaar|Podcast|About Us|Contact Us|User Agreement|Privacy Policy|Comment Policy
Copyright © 2008 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
COMMENT TOOLS:
Hide comments
Show comments
Comment on this article