I don’t need to write about this stuff because, well, I don’t know what I’m talking about, but Barry Ritholtz does. Check out Idiots Fiddle While Rome Burns:
This is financial incompetence writ on a scale far grander than anything seen for centuries… something beyond cognitive dissonance is occurring — this is full blown case of dementia unfolding in the public sphere. When this era of excess and absurdity is treated by historians in the future, the question I expect to be asked most is not why many of these people weren’t jailed for their financial felonies. Rather, I expect them to wonder why so many of these folk weren’t placed in protective custody, and heavily medicated, for the only rational explanation for their statements and behaviors is that they have gone so far beyond the bend as to be completely and totally insane.
Comment by K.J. Webb
1 July 16, 2008, 1:05 pm o'clock |
The reference to the great tulip mania shows that nothing is new under the sun. The trouble with people with money is that they’re either smugly counting their capital gains like old Scrooge McDuck, who liked to bathe in his horde of coins, or they’re terror-struck by the awful thought that they’re about to lose it all to short-sellers or the Beagle Boys. The effort of a rational person ought to be to absent himself from that little game. Cast a cold eye on filthy lucre and you won’t mind losing the stuff (or have that much to lose in the first place!). In the end we’re all going to lose our lives and the lives of those we love. That’s about as much loss as I can handle or care about. Losses in the financial world are a necessary part of any economy, the econonists say. If that’s so, then I say let other folks, if they must, defenistrate themselves for the common good. I got other fish to fry.
Comment by K.J. Webb
2 July 16, 2008, 1:12 pm o'clock |
The reference to the great tulip mania of the 17th century shows that nothing is new under the sun. People with money are always either smugly counting their capital gains like old Scrooge McDuck, who liked to bathe in his horde of coins, or they’re terror-struck by the awful thought that they’re about to lose it all to short-sellers or the Beagle Boys. They got no perspective. Their minds aren’t right. The effort of a rational person ought to be to absent himself from that little game. Cast a cold eye on filthy lucre and you won’t mind losing the stuff (or have that much to lose in the first place!). In the end we’re all going to lose our lives and the lives of those we love. That’s about as much loss as I can handle or care about. Losses in the financial world are a necessary part of any economy, the econonists say. If that’s so, then let other folks, if they must, defenestrate themselves for the good of us all. I got other fish to fry.