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So I’ve been following this Bernie Madoff insanity.
And this recent Washington Post Opinion Piece caught my eye:
“Madoff’s Lessons For the Market” by Steven R. Pearlstein
Never mind for a moment Madoff’s possible negative impact on Jewish stereotypes (a valid concern), this brief passage, buried exactly in the middle, brings up an equally important area of concern, for everyone:
“So much for the idea that wealthy individuals and “sophisticated” institutional investors don’t need the protection of government regulators.
In other words, when rich people find themselves in need of the White Knights of Government, we’re toast.
Well, not so fast.
Among the high and mighty clarion calls for More! Bigger! Governmental regulation in response to Madoff, we have only to look a tad bit deeper to realize that Madoff’s actions were not only noticed by his peers, but repeatedly reported by those peers, and others, to the SEC.
Their warnings were simply mishandled by a bumbling, and inept Securities and Exchange Commision: a powerful, and respected Government agency.
In fact, as far as “regulation” goes, the free market actually did it’s job here. They policed themselves, or at least tried to, again, and again, and again.
But to no avail.
And that’s the irony here.
The Government didn’t do its job.
And we’re supposed to fix this, and keep tragedies like this from happening again, by piling on more of that wonderfulness?
As opposed to, say, actually enforcing the laws that are already on the books?
Just a thought.
Well Bear Stearns, you did it.
Sure, there were a lot of greedy bastards in all of this, both on the bank side and the consumer side. But you, sirs, somehow managed to be such monumentally large douches, you’re actually taking the rest of the World down with you.
“Too Big To Fail” is the term that’s been bandied about.
And of this, I’m fairly sure you were well aware. I mean, why else would you ignore just about every news report for the last 3 years and somehow decide that actually *buying* these rotten loans was somehow actually a *good* idea?
Okay, you’re right. You were not alone. But you weren’t satisfied with merely being one of the pack. No sir ree.
Not only did you hold you nose and drink the tainted subprime tequila shot-for-shot with those other greedy douchebag banks, you chased it with a 4-foot bong of northern lights, a whippet, and then went streaking.
And before you say that’s the worst analogy you’ve ever read, let me clarify. …A little back story.
When I was in college there “the rich kids” and the “rest of us”. The rich kids were lucky enough, to have their parents pay for everything: school, food, housing, and even a little spending money for booze. Whereas the “rest of us” had to pay for everything ourselves, either through school loans, or if we were smart, actual jobs.
Well, somewhere between freshman and sophmore years, there was this rash of rich kids who went nuts with their parents’ money. They bought booze, drugs, music, clothes, and everything else you can think of like it was going out of style. Drunk with their first taste of freedom, and a little gratis spending money, they let loose.
And there was always that one kid who took even that way to far. And I knew one of those kids.
On top of the booze, drugs, clothes, music and what have you, this kid signed up for a bank account, and a credit card, and in a desperate attempt to gain some ephemeral small time fame, went and spent as much money as he possibly could buying booze, drugs, clothes and anything else he could think of, for anybody and everybody.
He threw parties. He took other kids on shopping sprees. And for about 3 full months, nobody on campus had to buy any beer or weed because he had it taken care of.
This lasted for several months, and by various accounts he owed well into the tens of thousands of dollars when it was all said and done. And when I asked him why the hell he did that… why, when his other friends were topping out at, say, $1,500… why he had to go so overboard?
It was simple, he explained. You see, those other kids ended up having to pay for their debt themselves, because it was relatively minor. He, on the other hand, was more conniving.
Or was it smart?
Since he had made his situation so bad, so untenable, he was in a unique position. And his parents were in an unenviable one. Since the level of damage was so great, their unfortunate choice was simple: either “teach their son a lesson”, and insist he pay for his monetary misdeeds, which would surely mean dropping out of school, a mountain of mind numbing legal problems, possible criminal charges, and assured bankruptcy? Or, in lieu of “ruining his life”… reluctantly bail him out, but with a stern talking to?
You know what happened.
And who can blame these parents for bailing out their son? As much as they probably wanted to see him suffer because of his idiocy, they couldn’t let his entire future get thrown out the window with the proverbial bath water. So they bit the bullet and did what they had to do.
This kid is Bear Stearns. And the Government is, once again, the parents.
And you thought that was a bad analogy.
So bravo Bear Stearns. Your plan worked perfectly. And only time will tell if you threw the World’s entire future out the window with your dirty bathwater.
Okay that was a bad one.
e
