Plain Old Greed

An Unwanted Creed

Banking institutions use the principle of “OPM” which literally

means “Other People’s Money”. Likewise with all the stock exchanges

where corporations made their listings to secure & amass additional funds

from the public. In the western democratic capitalist world this principle

is exploited without compassion to the fullest extent. Such practice is rampant

and widespread right down from the Government to the Man in the street.

Bernard Madoff

You have heard it often said ‘It could only happen in America’! This is a country of high drama and crimes . . . with happenings to dwarf any other globally. This is a country that is out to dominate, dictate, decide & even define in all spheres of human endeavour. The recent fraud case of Bernie Madoff who was sentenced to 150 years life sentence sets an unbeatable human record and defies all human crimes since time memorial. How could an apparently innocent-looking guy cheat the system, pulling wool over the eyes of the SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) and was undetected for as long as three decades fraudulently grossing over 65 billion? The world is without an equal in this respect. Could it be just plain stupid policies & lax regulations that breed such fraudulent crime?

A scenario of such nature paints vividly a big picture of greedy moneymen, free market hucksters, white-collar thieves of the highest & self-serving politicians. It bespeaks a system that caters for the rich & powerful to the detriment of the poor & neglectful.

Whenever events of such magnitude happened, politicians only speak in terms of statistics. Numbers & statistics are so meaningless in place of compassion, human values & sufferings. It’s what people do to people that matters most . . . jobs lost, life savings spent, millions of homes foreclosed, the emotional strain & stress & lots of other intangible consequences.

A society of thrift & frugality cannot be instituted overnight. Such culture must long be inculcated & established & must be able to endure the test of time. It is not something that comes & goes. Any sensible individual will know that you cannot go on spending like crazy & hope to make life easy.

Can you imagine all the nation’s wealth, i.e. the tax payers’ money, is being used to service a backbreaking load of debt that was accumulated to fuel the booming bubbles in the stock market, the bond market, the housing market & whatever credit of the economic hell! How do you solve a double-digit unemployment and a mounting national credit of $2.7 trillion expected by the end of 2010. Interest rates virtually down to zero! The amount of cash in circulation printed & pumped in by Federal Reserve has surged past the horror-inflation of 30 years ago. To begin to understand what’s it like having a dead currency is to ask a Zimbabwean!

The imbecility of the US Congress in thinking it can spend America’s way out of a recession caused by too much spending and debt takes the breath away – that should set you crying all the way to hell! It’s not a recession . . . it’s all the way a financial scandal that is the shame!

In times of financial crisis such as the present, Dubai’s building has become its undoing. Dubai’s propensity for building big while also throwing funds at overseas banks has left it looking to its neighbors for spare cash as boom turns to crunch. How much in the way of silly lessons has it learned from the master, the US government?

At least some countries like the Chinese are recognizing that the US way of finance involves running up vast debts through deficit spending while taking what’s wanted and killing anybody that gets in the way.

US Population, brought up on a politicized & substandard education system of pop culture rather than the classics, believe in greed to be the creed. Greed is the excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth.

Greed is the American disease – seriously considered as “cancer” hard to eradicate. This reckless greed is responsible for:

• The obscene salaries of the CEOs

• The crooked cops & politicians

• The disgraceful corporate scandals that cover the media

• The murders of the narcotics world

• The proliferation of wars & encroachment of others’ sovereignty

In brief, greed is the reason that US is being run by the insurance, pharmaceutical, weapons and the petroleum industries. Suffice to say that greed is the cause of every conceivable problem existing within the American social structure. It’s not just Bernie Madoff or the Garys and the Morgans, who are but a small bunch of evil men . . . but the evil has seeped right through from Wall Street to the Main Street.

Believe me

Greed is no Creed

It’s utterly evil in Deed

Totally an unwanted Creed!

Paul Chong

A Chinese by Descent

An Australian by Consent

Sunday, 19 July 2009