From our earliest childhood we are confronted by the epic struggle between the forces of good and evil.\u00a0\u00a0 We see it in literature, in sports, on stage and screen.\u00a0 It is a subject with apparently endless possibilities.\u00a0 This conflict between two opposing forces is frequently illustrated through fictitious characters who personify those forces and who engage in frequent battles for supremacy.\u00a0 Countless myths and stories are told of heroes vs villains, evil witches and fairy God-mothers, the cowboy in the white hat vs. the one with a black hat.\u00a0 For every Luke Skywalker there must be a Darth Vader, Batman has the Joker and the Dodgers have the Giants (sorry, bias exposed!). The object lesson is clear.\u00a0 These stories teach us to seek the good.\u00a0 Likewise we learn to shun the bad.<\/p>\n
But what is so very clear and simple in a play, motion picture or novel, is almost never as clear in real life.\u00a0 But that doesn’t keep us from trying to disregard the complex in favor of the simple.\u00a0 We want to blame someone for their evil deeds and we want the hero to show up just in the nick of time and save us just like in some old serial Western.<\/p>\n
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The financial market is a mess.\u00a0 There are many problems – and many reasons why.\u00a0 Surely, I tell myself, no one<\/em> can look at this convoluted conundrum and believe there is a single villain.\u00a0 But then along comes David Lazarus in the L.A. Times (Wednesday, September 24, Section C, page 5):<\/p>\n No one told these guys to invest billions in ill-conceived mortgages and they did so for no better purpose than to make themselves richer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Well, that is either a statement of incredible ignorance or a plain lie, (an aside: Why do you<\/em> go to work in the morning, David?\u00a0 Is it for no better purpose than to make yourself richer?\u00a0 There’s a name for that – it’s called incentive<\/em>.\u00a0 And the word is not necessarily synonymous with greed<\/em>, in spite of what you may think). Just read any of several blogs here and\/or a plethora of information coming out now from a variety of sources and it’s easy to see someone did indeed tell these banks to make ill-conceived loans.\u00a0 It was our own Federal Government.\u00a0 Not only that, two governmentally instituted (and<\/em> supervised) organizations, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, were at the forefront of this mess!<\/p>\n Now it makes for good copy to equate Wall Street with the Bates Hotel and all mortgage-backed securities traders as The Borg<\/a> .\u00a0 It fits quite well into the mold of comic book villains.\u00a0 But this is real life.\u00a0 We don’t all live in Metropolis and there’s no such thing as Kryptonite. In real life there is no shortage of people to blame, (though come to think of it – a lot of them do <\/em>seem to be Democrats…but I digress).<\/p>\n Yet here were are waiting for the hero.\u00a0 Who will ride in on a white horse and save the damsel in distress?\u00a0 Who will rescue the foreclosed-upon homeowner lying there, helpless, tied to the railroad tracks as the train fast approaches?\u00a0 Who can we trust?\u00a0 Why it’s… it’s… The Federal Government?<\/p>\n I think we need a new hero.\u00a0 I also think David Lazarus should resign from the Times and go see Stan Lee<\/a> about a job.<\/p>\nShare this:<\/h3>