Golden sacks

Moral: Wherein we consider that the ideological problems, which might be exemplified by a firm of note, must be resolved so that we can redirect Adam Smith's baby from the shell game'd playground, the unconscionable exploitation via the Ca-pital-sino, and a ponzi'ed framework to something more amenable to the health and welfare of the people, by getting beyond 'cat and mouse' thinking.

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GS, in other words, who might think that it represents the epitome and who ought to know that the 'real backbone' is far removed from its heighten'd views.

We'll get more into all this, through time. Look at the cartoon on this Tech Ticker page. The Wall Street firms just don't get it.

One theme will be to look a peerage, and royalty, and observe how the 'new royals' (at least, in their own estimation, as money can have its privileges) obtained their status through milking the 'market' situations under the guise of following Adam (poor guy, he's rolling around in his grave).

How do we train our brains to get above that muck generated over the past couple of decades?

One solution, as mentioned before, might be a type of 'national service' experience (for the youngsters) that could work wonders, especially for those who are overly privileged. Mind you, it's not necessary that this be militarily oriented. No, the purpose would be to introduce those from various cultures (yes, American is full of a very many) into a framework of service that has an uplifting theme, hopefully one beyond mere nationalism.

Another aspect would be to isolate various gaming efforts by regulating such to a sandbox. Then, quants would need fencing into the sandbox. You see, numeracy (and computational support thereof) lies behind a bunch of problems (again, we'll continue to get into that).

Something for all of us to note, please: many of these instruments of finance, that purport to be advanced and necessary, are neither. They exploit modern technology and knowledge, sure. But, it's in a blind-folded way. For those that may be necessary, a sandbox would allow a test environment. For the unnecessary, a sandbox would allow ad infinitum play (without the bonuses).

The question? Who owns what and why? Wall Street owns finance? Hah!!

Remarks:

07/22/2015 -- Some of these are, now, poster boys.

08/24/2013 -- Why do I think of golden sacks? Well, they represent the worse of the rogues, though I know that there are some good people working there who are doing the right thing. However, I have personal knowledge of two deals in which they were prime players in the role of experts in the matter. In both cases, workers lost their economic lives, some lost their pensions, both firms struggled. One actually went bankrupt due to the debt left by those golden players as they took off with bulging pockets. The incidents were within the past decade just prior to the downturn. Of course, golden boys/girls couldn't see that things would crash. But, any reasonable stance (based upon integrity, okay?) wold have foreseen that certain types of risks were not adequately handled. But, no, the context of the gaming rushes after reward (greedy accumulation) without proper regard to things related to the reality of near-zero. ... Much more can, and will, be said, in due time. In the meantime, the golden sack'ers (search) are archetypal in the world of economic misdeeds.

06/16/2011 -- Golden sack'd scandals.

05/17/2011 -- Golden sacks (leftmost mug of the rogue table), by Rolling Stone and Daily Ticker.

05/14/2010 -- Oh yes, smartest guys in the economy.

04/27/2010 -- Goldman's young guy as hero? See remarks earlier about fat cats and quants (look, defining these financial instruments and then modeling the payback are quantitatively flavored, through computation and mathematics). Fat cats do not know what the quants are doing and thereby let the young 'uns run amok. Why? 'Conceptual bliss' and 'abstraction' as Tourre suggested. Mainly using mathematics, and its modern selves, to create a whole lot of nothing, to make money doing so, and to then not accept responsibility for the fall out.

04/25/2010 -- Cartoonists ought to be having fun: Regulate the Banks? You'll Spoil the Fun.

04/24/2010 -- If it quacks like a duck, then ... Or, is it, in this case, if it waddles like a fat cat, ...? Those who run finance ought to not love money; that which these bankers are to provide is a utility, pure and simple.

Modified: 07/22/2015