In The Washington Post yesterday, former Governor Eliot Spitzer wrote an article entitled, "How to Ground the Street," and gives his opinion on what led to the fall of the financial markets and how to get fix things.
He writes, "One of the great advantages U.S. capital markets have enjoyed over the decades has been the view--held worldwide-that there was an underlying integrity to the representations market participants made, beause the regulatroy framework in which they were made was believed to provide genuine oversight. But as we all know, the laws requiring such integrity are meaningless without a government dedicated to enforcing them."
The section which stood out to me, in the entire article was the last sentence:
"But as we all know, the laws requiring such integrity are meaningless without a government dedicated to enforcing them."
I believe the current condition of the financial market mirrors the condition of the justice system. It is largely run by individuals without conscience, who are motivated by self-interest alone and not the greater needs of society, and it is not only corrupt, it has given U.S. citizens the facade of appearing, on the surface, to be "working" when it is not working.
There are two problems in the United States. The first is that the laws, rules, policies, and case law that's decided the structure, has promoted the special interests of the rich. The second problem is that even the good laws which remain, are not followed because there is lack of enforcement of these laws, and the framework has been restructured to keep average citizens from being able to make or demand the necessary corrections.
For example, from what I've seen of the justice system, it's corrupt. Had I not been involved personally, I never would have known. My ignorance was bliss, just as most of the country has been blissfully unaware of the problems of the financial markets, and the corruption and fraud. Most U.S. citizens have not had enough of an insider view to really know how bad things are. We take the systems for granted, and give our trust, thinking the government, and the corporations, in general, are a historic part of the national fabric, which we assume, because of a great heritage, is still intact. Few know or realize how policies and special interests have been chipping away at the structure and the fabric, for almost one hundred years.
We have been frogs in a pot.
I wondered myself, when I saw what is possible for Judges and lawyers to get away with, despite laws to prevent abuses, "Is it that we need more or better laws? or that the ones in place are simply not enforced?"
I think it is a problem which, if there is to be any resolution at all, requires solutions to both. Both system overhaul and new case law should be made, and laws, new and old, need and require enforcement.
We cannot depend upon the "goodness" of human nature to fix these things. From what I've seen, Judges who make decisions in their own best interests, are not interested in making fair decisions. They are primarily motivated by self-interest and how the outcome will pay off. Even if they are not directly taking bribes, they know that in exchange for a verdict to the party with the most power, right (and legal) or NOT, they stand to benefit from such an exchange.
The same is true of every aspect of the American market, whether it's law, where there is still financial interests and corporations are certaintly interested in the justice system working to their own advantage, or whether it is the financial markets directly, self-interest and the disappearance of good morals and sense of "honor", even, has long been out of fashion.
From what I've seen, it is not looked down upon, among lawyers, especially for corporate law, to cheat and lie and use deceipt to gain advantage. Instead of being punished, it is rewarded. It is not even considered to be a breach of ethics, but a normal part of the practice. The same is true of financial markets. Finding "loopholes" in tax law has graduated to the so-called "risk-taking" which is nothing more than fraud to the average U.S. citizen.
The structure changed when special interests and the rich gained ground, increasingly. Now the structure is so warped and slanted to favor the rich and the corporation, the interests of the public at large are nearly impossible to protect without overhauling the system altogether. And who is going to enforce the law, when the rich are the most powerful and when quite a lot of people and organizations, are too afraid to fight the rich and powerful? Without money and resources to match, the corporate criminals get away with not just irresponsibility, but crime.
In the same editio of The Post which carries the article by Spitzer, there is one by Charles Morris called, "Just What The Doctor Ordered: A Recession Can Clear The Air." He writes about the decision of former Federal Regulatory chairman Paul Volkner, to allow recession--writes Morris, "...Volcker masterminded a nasty slowdown that broke stagflation..." It's an interesting article.
The economic model is broken, Morris writes, and rather than dump more money into a broken model, allow the ax to fall where it may and finish it off quickly, instead of 10 years of slow death "by a thousand cuts."
I think he may be right. I tend to agree that while it would "allow" recession, naturally, as a consequence of fraud and failures, instead of giving Americans a false sense of security by bolstering a broken system, Americans should FEEL the full brunt of the consequences, in order to not only "clear the system" of bad air, but in order to anger and motivate regular citizens enough to GET INVOLVED and start thinking proactively about how to change things for the better.
Then again, we don't want a Great Depression where people are starving and scrambling too hard to survive to have the time or energy to be working towards a productive outcome.
Create jobs perhaps, create a "New Deal", but give it to the regular U.S. citizens while certain corporations are allowed to crumble and go through their bankruptcies. The jobs which Americans lose from the collapse of certain large corporations, should be able to pick up new jobs which perhaps the government could even create to fill the need.
In the meantime, do not reward corporate criminals for deceiving the public, and taking irresponsible risks. Change the policies and structures--back up and reverse the laws which favor special interests and which protect only a plutocracy, and then ensure money is flowing into the right hands, to provide funding for enforcement of laws and policies, in not only the financial markets but in the justice system.
Instead of throwing trillions of dollars at the corporations, do not give any more money to them. Allow them to assume responsibility for their actions. Instead of giving money to the corporations, CREATE jobs and new organizations for new policy-making and for ENFORCEMENT of the existing laws, and to the intelligence organizations already in place which need to investigage as new organizations are created and new employees are trained. Give people in the U.S. a chance to trade in their jobs working for the corporations, to enforcing laws and creating regulations. And who better to get started, than those who have some experience working for the market and the corporations?
Lawyers who are not directly involved with bankruptcies, who practiced corporate law, should be encouraged to "switch sides" and bring their knowledge of the game to the table, and join together to not only change the markets, but begin working directly on overturning faulty case law which has benefited corporations and the rich, and left the public with nowhere to turn for help when they are railroaded.
The U.S. should find its rewards, and financial gain, in jobs which are created to fix the problem, not in jobs which sustain a broken model and reward bad behavior.
No comments:
Post a Comment