Greed, Stupidity or Audacity

In a Washington Post article by Steven Pearlstein, it’s suggested that stupidity, not greed, should be blamed for our current financial mess.  Pearlstein concedes:  “Wall Street is nothing if not an organized system of greed, a high-stakes game in which the object is to take advantage of customers and counterparties by buying pieces of paper from them at less than they are really worth and selling them to others for more than they are worth.”  But since greed is a basic premise of a capitalist economy (he apparently believes we still have one), it’s okay.

The problem comes when this necessary greed causes the “masters of finance” to be carried away by their success, which turns into arrogance, makes them believe they’re invincible, and results in stupid decisions.  You can call it greed, but it “looks more like old-fashioned incompetence.”

Regardless of what you call it, apparently no one is immune.  We usually think of the private sector when talking about this subject, but ”masters” in the public sector can also become greedy or stupid.  Take the general manager of Los Angeles’ largest city pension agency.  When he retired earlier this year, he orchestrated an elaborate retirement party for himself by “inviting” businesses who had sought or secured millions dollars from the pension fund during the manager’s reign over it to make donations to the party, which would be used to establish a scholarship in his name.  He had already landed a post-reirement job with one of these businesses and, only days after his retirement, tried to influence the amount of fees the city would pay his new employer.  His defense?  Everybody does this.

In India recently, a mob of employees bludgeoned to death the chief executive officer of the company where they used to work.  After a long-running dispute over wages and other benefits, the CEO had laid off over 100 employees.  Whether the CEO was greedy or stupid, he didn’t deserve to be murdered.  That’s India, of course.  That would never happen in America.  I wonder.  If the bailout doesn’t work (and many are already saying it won’t–that more will be required) and if employees continue to lose their jobs while executives continue to collect massive compensation packages, when will a desperate group of employees reach the breaking point?  A lot has been said about the Great Depression lately,  We might do better by refreshing our memory about the Revolutionary War.

I’m sure Mr. Pearlstein is a lot smarter than I am, so he may be right about the greed-stupidity dichotomy.  But I think the right word is audacity, which applies to someone who is recklessly bold, rash, insolent, impudent.  If an employer is led by the audacious in this time of crisis, employment litigation and union organization may give way to what people who are desperate (the early colonists, for example) do.  As I’ve said before on this blog, all most employees want is to be treated with respect.  Right now, that’s more important than ever.

1. 

   Michael Moore says:

   October 8, 2008 at 7:57 am

   I am sure these matters are discussed by executives between spa treatments.
2. 

   Ritaanz says:

   October 8, 2008 at 1:00 pm

   Spa? What? Does golf makes them too visible to the destitute?
3. 

   ACU Frank says:

   October 8, 2008 at 1:28 pm

   This week’s revelations about the recent conduct of the execs at Lehman and AIG will continue to redefine the term “audacity”. Unfortunately, it will have no lasting effect.
4. 

   John Phillips says:

   October 9, 2008 at 9:57 am

   Michael, Ritaanz and Frank,

   Thanks for you comments. I see that cynicism has understandably bitten all of us.