Project for Philosophical Evaluations of the Economy |
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The Karma of Finance
Afterthoughts on an informative tv documentary, first drafted on Feb. 6, published on Feb. 7. 2009
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Noah denkt™ would like to inform the readers of this web page that Joseph Stiglitz and Bruce Greenwald both
believe that overcoming the current recession may take up several years. (see Arte-TV documentary: “Through the night
with...Joseph Stiglitz and Bruce Greenwald”, Feb. 5, 2009) Noah denkt™ would like to put this in perspective by saying
the aforementioned assertion may be true for the real economy. It will, in our opinion, not be true though in the
financial markets. Much rather do we believe that pretty soon financial markets will experience an ,albeit short-
lived, blip to the upside.
It turns out that more and more people, if not to say, almost everyone now claims, to have predicted the eventual
bursting of the sub-prime bubble. In fact, a Wall Street Journal editor, who appeared in the aforementioned
documentary, claimed that Wall Street brokers were aware of the fact that they were living in a bubble and that
they did not do anything about it in order to be able to maximise their personal profits as long as that bubble
would last. Noah denkt™ would like to go on record by pointing that it does not buy this argument in the way that
it has been presented here. Much rather do we believe that while being uneasy about the exorbitant profits they
were making, Wall Street traders did everything they could to discourage the development of a true bubble
conviction in their own mind. In other words, they rationalized over this as hard as they possibly could only to be
able to then avoid having to face up to the actual truth. You may call this the financial Stockholm Hostage
Syndrome.
Still, the prior assertion according to which Wall Street executives consciously risked the future viability of their
employer’s company only to maximize their personal gains, merits a second thought. And so Noah denkt™ would
like to take this opportunity to reconsider, yet again, the veracity of its own belief according to which the turbo-
capitalistic reality of today makes it impossible for anyone to truly enjoy the fruits of their own greed. In other
words, the question that needs to be revisited is this: Will people like Dick Fuld die better off financially for having
enriched themselves pretty much recklessly during the last bubble, or will they eventually die poorer given that
the disgrace they have now brought onto themselves will impede them from making more bucks in a rather
respectable and reasonable manner. Obviously this is an issue that eventually needs to be studied in a more
coherent and scientific matter. Noah denkt™’s current speculation however is, that people like Mr. Fuld will
eventually leave less money for their kids than they would have been able to if they had not engaged in a simple-
minded greed logic. Why do we believe that? - Because we presume that the lack of prudence and consistency
with which greed-driven human beings develop their judgment will finally come to haunt them when they have to
reinvest the proceeds that their previous greed has incurred for them. They simply won’t be able to develop the
best possible speculation now, since they have so far not worked towards that with the necessary commitment.
You may call this the unforgiving karma of finance which a super-complex and super-interconnected turbo-
capitalism has set in motion.
Afterthoughts on an informative tv documentary, first drafted on Feb. 6, published on Feb. 7. 2009
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Noah denkt™ would like to inform the readers of this web page that Joseph Stiglitz and Bruce Greenwald both
believe that overcoming the current recession may take up several years. (see Arte-TV documentary: “Through the night
with...Joseph Stiglitz and Bruce Greenwald”, Feb. 5, 2009) Noah denkt™ would like to put this in perspective by saying
the aforementioned assertion may be true for the real economy. It will, in our opinion, not be true though in the
financial markets. Much rather do we believe that pretty soon financial markets will experience an ,albeit short-
lived, blip to the upside.
It turns out that more and more people, if not to say, almost everyone now claims, to have predicted the eventual
bursting of the sub-prime bubble. In fact, a Wall Street Journal editor, who appeared in the aforementioned
documentary, claimed that Wall Street brokers were aware of the fact that they were living in a bubble and that
they did not do anything about it in order to be able to maximise their personal profits as long as that bubble
would last. Noah denkt™ would like to go on record by pointing that it does not buy this argument in the way that
it has been presented here. Much rather do we believe that while being uneasy about the exorbitant profits they
were making, Wall Street traders did everything they could to discourage the development of a true bubble
conviction in their own mind. In other words, they rationalized over this as hard as they possibly could only to be
able to then avoid having to face up to the actual truth. You may call this the financial Stockholm Hostage
Syndrome.
Still, the prior assertion according to which Wall Street executives consciously risked the future viability of their
employer’s company only to maximize their personal gains, merits a second thought. And so Noah denkt™ would
like to take this opportunity to reconsider, yet again, the veracity of its own belief according to which the turbo-
capitalistic reality of today makes it impossible for anyone to truly enjoy the fruits of their own greed. In other
words, the question that needs to be revisited is this: Will people like Dick Fuld die better off financially for having
enriched themselves pretty much recklessly during the last bubble, or will they eventually die poorer given that
the disgrace they have now brought onto themselves will impede them from making more bucks in a rather
respectable and reasonable manner. Obviously this is an issue that eventually needs to be studied in a more
coherent and scientific matter. Noah denkt™’s current speculation however is, that people like Mr. Fuld will
eventually leave less money for their kids than they would have been able to if they had not engaged in a simple-
minded greed logic. Why do we believe that? - Because we presume that the lack of prudence and consistency
with which greed-driven human beings develop their judgment will finally come to haunt them when they have to
reinvest the proceeds that their previous greed has incurred for them. They simply won’t be able to develop the
best possible speculation now, since they have so far not worked towards that with the necessary commitment.
You may call this the unforgiving karma of finance which a super-complex and super-interconnected turbo-
capitalism has set in motion.
| © Landei Selbstverlag, owned by Wilhelm ("Wil") Leonards, Gerolstein, Germany. All rights reserved. Reminder: Noah denkt™ is a project of Wilhelm ("Wil") Leonards and his Landei Selbstverlag (WL & his LSV). Consequently, all rights to the texts that have been published under the Noah denkt™brand name are reserved by WL & his LSV. The commentary and the reasoning that was provided on this page is for informational and/or educational purposes only and it is not intended to provide tax, legal or investment advice. It should therefore not be construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any security or any issuer by WL & his LSV or its Noah denkt™ Project. In fact, WL & his LSV encourage the user to understand that he alone is responsible for determining whether any investment, security or strategy is appropriate or suitable for him. And to leave no doubt as to what this means we urge our user to also note our extended Legal Notice. |
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