An interesting read, this.
Not a very encouraging article though given what we have not done to those who cheated so much.

Thanks for sharing, Fred. There definitely is a disconnect. Hence nothing is going to change.

Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.

I know lots of people who have been "given" guns.
(Like my "blue" Baretta 9mm w/ 15R clip. Happy Birthday! Bang! Bang!)

I know of no one who has been given a bank. One must buy, inherit, take over with hostility, nationalize, or usurp a bank. Or, one can "borrow" lots of other peoples' money to start one.

And aren't $uper $uce$$ful people sociopaths, rather than psychopaths? I'm sure they can be both.

I heard someone say many years ago long before the financial meltdown, that in order to be a somewhat "successful" CEO of any corporation of an consequence, one must be a type of sociopath or psychopath, in other words, one with little or no conscience to be able to handle the difficult times when perhaps hundreds or even thousands of people might have to lose their jobs as a result of downsizing in order to maintain the viability of that corporation AND in the case of a public company, satisfy the shareholders.

I doubt that there are many of us that could live(and sleep at night) with the idea that our decision had perhaps just destroyed the lives of many people, of course, most of whom we will never see or meet.

it much the same as CEO's for whom workers = machinery; use them to the max and then discard them for new ones that are more efficient and cost less.

I think most CEOs could sleep at night knowing that they HAVE to let 500 people go to preserve the viability of the company, therefore saving the other thousands of employees their jobs.

I think what's different these days is the too many CEOs are willing to let 500 people go, not to SAVE the company, but simply to make higher and ever higher profits for the top people in the company.

is capitalism better than feudalism ?

Being in and around the art world for a couple of decades, I have met and know many immensely wealthy people. Then, I worked in deveopment for a non-profit and met more of the same people. They come from all professions; medicine, the arts, science, law, business, or inheritance.

With few exceptions, everyone of them has done things for gain that made me cringe. I dated a multi-millionaire for a year and a half. His response to my horrors was always the same, "It's only business."

Sorry. There's no such thing. Were you dealing with a person? Yes? Then it's PERSONAL, asswipe!
Of course, it's become a much larger problem now that someone with $250 million, running for Prez, believes that corporations are people, too. He forgot to mention that they are also the wealthiest of sociopaths and that's exactly how they got that much money.

Harumpf!

The best example of this that I can think of was a news magazine type show a few years ago (I can't remember which one) that was investigating the airline industry when it first started having large scale financial difficulties.

They interviewed the CEO (or similar title) of one of Japan's largest airlines. Late in the interview, they pointed out to him the difference in salary that he took vs. the extra digits salaries of an American counterpart for a major airline.

He laughed. When asked if he himself would ever expect to take a salary of this size to run his airline, his response was something along the line of "No. I would not insult the workers in my company by taking a salary of this size."

Speaking of the highly lucrative arts world , have you ever seen the movie "Exit Through the Gift Shop", Bob? It's really good. I think you would enjoy it.

No, but I will look for it. Thanks for the tip, Cam man. It wasn't until the 90's that every traveling bigtime exhibition forced you to leave through a temporary gift shop featuring calendars, cutting boards, and mugs of all the things you just saw.

At one museum I worked at, you left AND entered though the giftshop!

Oh yeah.... the "Colonoscopies Through the Ages" museum...

Ever hear of The Mutter Museum in Philly? It's right up the same alley of your allusion.

You know, I never really thought of how prominent the gift shop entrance/exit is but I do remember feeling good this spring after leaving the Glenbow Museum in Calgary to see the Karsh exhibit. I did not have to traverse their gift shop at all and it gave the place a much more elegant feel.

Now I have seen portraiture photography from both Yousuf Karsh and Mark Johnson. I declare that particular genre, very well covered.

I read the piece. What a pile of poop. Anyone who accuses US society of being grossly unequal misses the point. A child of a working class family in the US can become wealthy. This is not the case in countries characterized by extreme wealth on the top and starvation poverty below.



We are only now experiencing middle class compression of socialist European countries, and that only because of the practice of spending more than we bring in at the Fed and State government levels.

Conflating the income of bankers with gang gun violence is an example of pure academic moronism. The suggestion that financial success is criminal vitiates the immorality of criminal conduct by bankers or any other segment of society. We'll see how Jon Corzine and his friends at MF Global who "lost" $1.2 billion make out.

When you drill down the authors' argument is an absurd over simplification - i.e., what is wrong with the financial sector is the lack of shame attached to failure, or 'guessing wrong.' The moral hazard of the losses which follow guessing wrong stands at the heart of the capitalist 'risk' system. The article's substitution for 'shame' with 'moral hazard' is subtle but Soviet.



By this standard, Obama and his enviro-socialist dwarfs should have been pilloried for their corrupt 'bad bets' on Solyndra and SunPower.

The article's point is congruent with the driving force behind the Obama administration, and the Occupy Wall Street losers - sociology or politics which divides a society by class. Socialist Class Warfare Demagoguery.

Nothing good comes from it.

Those are some excellent points 2x6.

Happy holidays!

But how do you really feel?????
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Kidding!!

Happy holidays to y'all as well!

Whenever I see graphics here that are entirely red, black and yellow, I immediately look to confirm that they came from Cam. Most especially when persons depicted are donning hats.
Hats with something yellow on them.

Nice curve.