"A lot of white-collar criminals are psychopaths. But they flourish because the characteristics that define the disorder are actually valued. When they get caught, what happens? A slap on the wrist, a six-month ban from trading, and don't give us the $100 million back. I've always looked at white-collar crime as being as bad or worse than some of the physically violent crimes that are committed."
Robert Hare, as quoted in Psychopaths Among Us
“I've always resented the smug statements of politicians, media commentators, corporate executives who talked of how, in America, if you worked hard you would become rich. The meaning of that was if you were poor it was because you hadn't worked hard enough. I knew this was a lie, about my father and millions of others, men and women who worked harder than anyone, harder than financiers and politicians, harder than anybody if you accept that when you work at an unpleasant job that makes it very hard work indeed.”
Howard Zinn, You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train
"People can rationalize almost anything, for even a considerable time, for years, and ignore all the consequences of their actions and inactions. And when someone finally forces them to look at what they have done, and shows it to them firmly, describing it in uncompromising words, they are shocked, defiant, in denial, then appalled, and finally ashamed. One does not become a monster overnight, but in stages."
Jesse, Psychopaths Among Us and the Necessity of Law, 9 September 2011
"THOMAS MORE: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
WILLIAM ROPER: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
THOMAS MORE: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat?
This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast, man's laws, not God's, and if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake."
Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons
"He who fights with monsters should be wary that they may become a monster. For if you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss
gazes back in you."
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 1886
This was an interesting day of seeming convergences.
Stocks rose overall, although big cap tech was flat.
VIX fell.
Gold and silver were higher.
The Dollar rose.
Was this a flight to safety, or a flight of the imagination.
There will be a stock option expiration on Friday.
And as a reminder, there will be a BRICs Summit meeting next week on October 22-24.
There may be some implications for the markets, particularly gold and silver.
And of course, as a consequence of the madness of the exceptional, we remain dancing on a volcano.
Have a pleasant evening.
