"It is no exaggeration to say that since the 1980s, much of the global financial sector has become criminalised, creating an industry culture that tolerates or even encourages systematic fraud. The behaviour that caused the mortgage bubble and financial crisis of 2008 was a natural outcome and continuation of this pattern, rather than some kind of economic accident.
This behaviour is criminal. We are talking about deliberate concealment of financial transactions that aided terrorism, nuclear weapons proliferation and large-scale tax evasion; assisting in major financial frauds and in concealment of criminal assets; and committing frauds that substantially worsened the worst financial bubbles and crises since the Depression. And yet none of this conduct has been punished in any significant way."
Charles H. Ferguson, Heist of the century" Wall Street's Role in the Financial Crisis, The Guardian, 20 May 2012
“Leadership is getting results in a way that inspires trust. It’s maximizing both your current contribution and your ability to contribute in the future by establishing the trust that makes it possible. A nation’s well-being, as well as its ability to compete, is conditioned by a single, pervasive cultural characteristic: the level of trust inherent in the society.
The more people rationalize cheating, the more it becomes a culture of dishonesty. And that can become a vicious, downward cycle. Because suddenly, if everyone else is cheating, you feel a need to cheat, too."
Stephen Covey, The Speed of Trust
"Capitalism is at risk of failing today not because we are running out of innovations, or because markets are failing to inspire private actions, but because we’ve lost sight of the operational failings of unfettered gluttony. We are neglecting a torrent of market failures in infrastructure, finance, and the environment. We are turning our backs on a grotesque worsening of income inequality and willfully continuing to slash social benefits. We are destroying the Earth as if we are indeed the last generation."
Jeffrey Sachs, Self-interest, Without Morals, Philadelphia Fed, April 17th, 2013
The economic data came in a little hot this morning, and with the recent earnings report flops, that served to take the equity markets down.
Gold and silver were hit rather hard in honor of an otherwise inconsequential Comex metals options expiration.
It's the spirit, never the substance, of the scam.
The Dollar chopped sideways.
VIX came in high and drifted lower.
The war in the Mideast is smoldering in a most ominous way.
The odor of the moral character of the centers of power is most foul.
Have a pleasant evening.
