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Bad boys give their middle finger to their fellow men and women. This was the week of bad boys all over the world.
Appalling scenes from Toxteth (Liverpool) , Winsom Green (Birmingham) or Ealing (London) and many other places in the UK . Riots resulting in neighbourhoods which look like war-zones now. Burning buildings, ravaged shops, ruined street-furniture and thousands of angry, stealing, looting, violent youngsters. Most of them unemployed, loathing the society that leaves them out and in their perception denies them what they are entitled to. Their fury produced an irrational stampede of vandalizing gangs. The world looked on in shock and horror. The damage done runs in the hundreds of millions of Sterling Pounds. Prime minister David Cameron promised the House of Commons to come down on the culprits tough and merciless: “We will track you down, we will find you, we will charge you, we will punish you. You will pay for what you have done”.
Yes, the PM and public opinion is clear: these are bad boys – and girls. A risk to society.
But are they as dangerous as massive corruption by politicians, businessmen and policemen? Because they are actually Indonesia’s economic ( and moral) black hole. A lot of the nation’s wealth and economic potential goes down the drain because of them. If it comes to damage to the country they at least vie with English scum for the world championship bad boy ( and bad girl). But only in exceptional cases they will “be charged, punished and pay” for what they have done.
Among them are prodigal sons. And daughters. They are guys and dolls who fled the country because their involvement with the nation’s most damaging game, has been found out. Which was either by their bad luck or by stupidity. Yet they apparently immediately managed to buy their escape to Singapore or other convenient places, leaving the hunting grounds to their smarter colleagues. Yet one of them returned home this week. Not quite voluntary though. And definitely quite frightened of what might happen to him. No wonder since he profiled himself as a man-who-knows-too-much. Nazaruddin therefore was on the front stage this week.
Anyhow, he is back and the nation holds it’s breath. Will he actually be the scandalous snitch and media delicacy the weeks and months to come? A lot of people doubtlessly hope so. If only because the dragging on Century Bank scandal by and large has become pretty obsolete, boring and hopeless. Everybody is waiting for new, fresh, juicy showdown of immoral behaviour by the ruling elite. The very persons who of course are the ones who fear the anxious prodigal son will speak his mind . They hope lightning will strike and get him before he can open his mouth.
The greedy Indonesian bad boys are bad enough, but perhaps the worst ones are to be found among the bankers and speculators in the financial world.
Bankers call the shots. Well, not just bankers but the other major players of the global financial world as well. Someone told me “Finance” globally equals 30% of the financial-economic machine that is grinding us. Which means about one third of what, taking all earthlings together, we think we own is nothing but virtual. Thin air actually. Which showed last two weeks: the stock-markets lost about $ 700 billion of their “value”. Gigantic figures. Vanished into thin air.
Yet they bring huge wealth to the chosen few, the insiders. The financial top brass rewards itself with astronomical salaries, bonuses and gains from gambling with, mainly, other people’s money. By speculating. Well,by rather calculated, coordinated, deliberately managed manipulation. They can do so come rain or shine because they are the wizards of this semi-fictitious world, the high priest of this partly make belief universe.
The damage caused by Richard S. Fuld Jr (Lehman Brothers), Sir Fred Goodwin (Bank of Scotland), Jean-Paul Votron (Fortis-ABN) or Lloyd Blankfein probably is much more serious than what the scum on the streets in the UK brought about.
Even the likes of Nazaruddin and Nunun are no match for them. They have the longest middle fingers. And no one to tell them:”We will track you down, we will find you, we will charge you, we will punish you. You will pay for what you have done”.
My thought exactly. I think bankers are the biggest scums of the three groups as they made more damages than politician and rioters and most of them get away with it… they even get big bonuses!
btw, I found out that people are selling iPad case made out of Bernie Madoff’s old clothing. seriously!
@ triesti : Must be a pretty expensive item
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As for the bankers ( and “investors” like the noble Soros) I sometimes wonder if they are lucky not to live in mediaeval
times when without doubt they would have been visited by farmers (and other victims of their thefts) carrying dung-forks, hoes and pickaxes…
we need to dunk them in tar and feather
@ treisti: Bright idea
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I agree with what you said about bankers (many of them).
Ironically the world need bankers, so perhaps there should be some sort of reform in international banking.
@ Harry: Yes, banks unfortunately are indispensable in the present economic system. A global agreement on tight regulation of banks and bankers could be start to improve the situation. And gambling on the stock-market by “investors”, hedgefunds and the like, should be drastically reigned or (preferably) be prohibited ( like France and some other countries – be it only temporary- prohibited “short-selling” the other day).
Several thoughts to this interesting piece:
1.
I am sure you didn’t mean it that way, but the story reads like “let us not punish some crimes, for other crimes are worse”. Just to mention it.
2.
The riots are illegal acts on a smaller scale, in that they have a smaller effect on the national level. For some individuals, though, having your shop torn down for no reason has a larger impact than having to bribe some official. I am sure some shopkeepers in the U.K. will run into severe mental problems. Of course, the average civilian is affected less but that is not very relevant to my opinion. One could similarly argue that murder is not a problem because it only kills one person – and who hears him/her complaining? Nobody. Surpassing the speed limit is a much more important crime, as it endangers many people.
3.
A difference with bankers: they play according to the rules. One might say that the rules are wrong – and I suppose they are – but one cannot punish someone for sticking to the rules. The problem is, to my opinion again, that there is a system of checks and balances, some of which are legal but others are embedded in the organization (because it is most efficient to put monitoring in the hands of those who know what happens). Weak monitoring within the system causes extremes, and this calls for (a) actors’ morals to be questionned, and (b) other aspects of the system of checks and balances to be revised.
4.
You say that ‘unfortunalely’ we need banks. I think this is not true. Banks in essence fulfil a very useful role in society: they collect savings from individuals and redistribute them to organizations in need of finance for growth. This is needed, as an organization cannot scrap savings from thousands of individuals to finance a large scale project, and banks can more efficiently monitor the organization than thousands of individuals.
Banks have also taken up other tasks, and one may wonder whether they are needed, but in the end they remain intermediaries. If someone decides that his money is better of with an investor than on a savings account (because that generates higher returns) it also calls for shares and derivative trading. If nobody wants to trade, banks wouldn’t do so. Thus, it is consumer greed as well that caused the financial crisis.
5.
Stoch markets reflect economic (and other) trends, not the other way around. In the end, Philips or GE do not care whether they are worth 1 or 10 billion euros. The stock price only becomes relevant when firms are in need of financing. I think it is thus exaggerated to present stock market trends on the news every day. It simply is no news. Usually, stock prices fluctuate up and down around a real value. Bringing news about the real value, as always, is of course much more complex and it is easier to say that the stock market went up by 0.15 percent (following a decrease of 0.50 percent yesterday).
6.
I think anybody should be happy not to live in the Middle Ages anymore. This holds for the rioting youngsters, the corrupt and the bankers alike. Being in jail still sounds better than being torn into four pieces by a few horses.
@ Gerwin: Thanks for your, as usual, insightful and extensive comment
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I will reply in a similar way (I hope) soon. But in a way like an “entrée” a few preliminary remarks:
- No, the fact that in my opinion the Bankers ‘crimes to society are worse than those of the scum on the London streets, doesn’t mean that I think minor crimes should pas without sanctions. I just meant major crimes shouldn’t pass without sanctions.
- Though I doubt whether Bankers and others in the financial world factually didn’t break the law, the quintessence is that the laws (regulations) have been changed over the last thirty odd years years ( thanks to the neo-liberal ideology) to accommodate the financial criminals. In any orderly society these regulations and laws – which are necessary to guarantee a decent, stable and orderly society including the financial world- should have been in place. And the bankers either would have complied with them, or would have been sanctioned.
- First of all I don’t think there is much proof the financial markets reflect the real economy. But even if one believes in the beneficial existence of markets, it is very doubtful whether a financial market really deserves that name. It’s not about concrete products and a substantial part of the action is gambling.
I think, one of the effective ways to solve the problem is law enforcement.
I prefer Beach Boys (Band) than Bad Boys !
@utomo, bad boys are more exciting than the average
@ Utomo: Law enforcement is fine. But a) laws don’t guarantee justice and b) some area’s of society are practically void of both laws ánd justice.
As for the Beach Boys – who in my opinion and according to my taste were nice but played sub-top, after Beatles, the Who and the Rolling Stones to mention a few – I agree. Although…
@ triesti: … I second the opinion in the version of the relative excitement of the company of bad girls >:D
@ gerwin (2): I promised a more extensive, more detailed answer to your ( kind of) banker’s apology.
I’m sorry. It has to be postponed. No not because today the story popped up that Nout Wellink screwed our pensions because he panicked and made the funds sell their stocks at the worst possible moment. No, but after reading this (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/is-the-sec-covering-up-wall-street-crimes-20110817) I’m too angry at the money greedy bunch for some weeks to come, to stay polite. The present Financial world apparently IS an either incompetent or criminal pain in the ass.