“Depart from me, you accursed. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not comfort me.' They answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not care for you?' He answered, 'Truly I tell you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.’” Matthew 25:40-46
This is a fairly nice description of the tip of the credibility trap.
It is a description of moral hazard, of a partnership between the corporations and individuals in government. And it is a corrosive acid on the body politic. MF Global is not the end of it, but only a new beginning.
With every unpunished crime, with every successful deception, the monied interests grow more self-assured, and bolder.
The more rational in the financial system, academia, and the media wish this to stop, and know it will end badly, but a powerful few will have no restraints.
And so the dance must continue while the music keeps playing. The stewards of society, the Congress, the President, the media, the Fed, none have the moral sense and courage to merely stand up and say, "Stop. Enough. Stop beating your victims. Stop abusing the public."
Well, some may say it. Tavakoli, Yves, William Black, Elizabeth Warren, Barry Ritholz, Simon Johnson, and others have all said it, well, and many times.
And among the powerful Obama may say it. Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich may say it. But they do not mean it, and will do nothing substantial about it. And that is a national tragedy.
As the banking regulator and monetary authority, the Fed was particularly culpable and responsible for the housing asset bubble, the collapse of which is shown in the last chart.
Their 'job' is to take away the punch bowl when the party starts getting out of hand. Instead, first Greenspan and then Bernanke fed and at times even promoted through the stifling of dissent the malinvestment and large scale banking fraud that almost brought the global economy to the brink, and the coming derivatives crisis which almost certainly will if something radical is not done about it.
They have done worse with their handling of the TBTF banks, but the impact of that remains largely in the future. And they operated under a cloak of secrecy and sometimes deception, greatly influencing economic thought through their growing bureaucracy.
The shame is that the craven Congress gave them even more power in the aftermath.
Let us pray for those whose hearts are hardened against His grace and loving kindness by greed, fear, and pride, and the seductive illusion and crushing isolation of evil.
We pray that we all may experience the three great gifts of our Lord's suffering and triumph: repentance, forgiveness, and thankfulness. And in so doing, may we obtain abundant life, and with it the peace that surpasses all understanding.
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