Friday, October 02, 2009

The industry of accountability would pay for itself. An entire league of accountants, lawyers, police, investigators., etc, would be employed to rein in rampant and runaway damage to our planet and the people on it, by those who are a bit over-enthusiastic in the accumulation of money. Overenthusiastic to the point where they will hurt others in order to get ahead. That must be curtailed. The industry of accountability would pay for itself in savings by those who today get away with rampant greed, and rampant destruction of the environment. We are now paying billions if not trillions to support an industry of greed, of fraud, of ruin. We just need to take this excess "energy" and see it spent on positive, proactive and protective measures, rather than on selfish, self destructive measures.

On the other hand, people who want to help others, make a fortune, improve the planet, etc, are welcome to become as wealthy as the world allows. No limits. Complete freedom, just as Milton Freidman would have wanted. It just has to be done without making others suffer.

That is my wish for capitalism today. Not, as Michael Moore might suggest, that it needs to be put to sleep. Not that we need convert to socialism, communism, alcoholsim or any other form of ism that might make us feel good for a day. We might just start with the part that Milton left out. With freedom.......comes responsibility. Starting now.

Humanism. A new form of capitalism

The name is HUMANISM.
The game is how to improve Capitalism so that it can function as it should, without resorting to so much financial cannibalism of each other. So much greed, and so much financial abuse.

We have seen Communism. We have seen Socialism. We have seen Capitalism. They could all be defined this way:
In the first one, man is allowed to exploit his fellow man. In the other two it is just the opposite.

Humanism, on the other hand, is where human beings and human lives are given a place of importance. A priority if you will. How?
Humanism is Capitalism with accountability. With responsibility for ones actions. Not simply the kind we have now were the man with the most lawyers beats up the other man with the least. But real, societal support for fairness, and accountability. Where when one man is beaten or abused by another by capitalistic means, the entire society acts in a manner to correct this. Where predators are not simply allowed to prey on the weakest members of society at will.
Milton Freidman, the Nobel winning economist, with his "FREE TO CHOOSE" motto, left only one small item out. That item is the fact that with freedom comes responsibility. As we all tell our 16 year old when we first give him the keys to the family car. We need to put together a world where every one of us is told the same thing; "with economic freedom, comes a responsibility to behave in a manner appropriate". If you do not, you will be held to account.

Greed is good.......but not it if is used to hurt others. It all too often is allowed to.

Accountability means an entire new industry being introduced. An industry to ensure responsible humane behavior. To curtail the financially insane. To hold them to account for the damage done to other humans, or to the planet. It is an attempt to make our economy sustainable, and sustainable for more than just the top 1% of the population.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Finance Minister Iris Evans "sees no evil", protects her job

The economic meltdown is being analyzed to determine what caused it and how our preventative systems failed us.  After three decades of working inside, or studying the financial services industry I offer the following as what I have discovered along the way.

Of course a human tendency towards greed is an obvious cause, that includes the people who took the money that they may (or may not) have known was impossible to repay.  I blame those persons to a certain extent since we are always responsible for our actions.  However lets go up one level and see if there is a greater duty of care with the service providers.

The folks who pushed, promoted, or "gave away" the farm with mortgages to those who were not qualified are in the business of lending.  They are supposed professionals, and as a result of this I hold them to a higher standard, a higher duty of care, to the public they serve.  They cannot say that they did not know better, as is the case for some of their customers.  They are a huge cause of what went wrong.

Next up the scale of accountability we look at the financial "meth labs", investment firms who are always on the lookout for the next great product to sell.  Like the original lenders, these banksters and brokers also had no interest in whether the investments were any good or not, they were simply interested in the commissions from selling them to the next poor soul.  This is a pretty good indicator of whether or not your investment firm is truly trying to place your interests first, as they promise.  They too, should be held to account, since their constant promise to the public is that they are "professionals", and not merely "hucksters".  It looks like they lied to us.

Then comes the bond rating agencies, who were hired and paid (by those investment firms) to fudge the ratings on tainted products.  They have sold their souls for short term profits and have thus lost the moral right to be considered professional.

Remarkably, our own financial watchdogs are next on the list of those persons or agencies who participated in the public fraud.  Here, with thirteen provincial and territorial securities commissions, all thirteen of those agencies granted "approximately 20" passes to investment firms to violate the Securities Act in each jurisdiction.  No public input. No public notice.  But when we learn that each commission is paid by the investment industry, based on fees and charges for such "work" as granting legal exemptions, it should come as no surprise.

Finally we get to the level of government ministers, who are responsible for those government agencies, which are responsible for inspecting, protecting and preventing investment fraud towards the public.  The federal government passes the buck back down to the provinces, saying that each province is responsible for matters of investment in their jurisdiction.

That gets us to Iris Evan, the finance minister for my province of Alberta.  The second from the top person who is supposedly responsible for all of the acts of those agencies and persons beneath her jurisdiction.  How does she react to the systemic failures?  By looking the other way unfortunately.  By ignoring the entire event as if nothing happened and by protecting her job, rather than protecting the public.  She joins the list of all of the so called "professionals", who choose their own self interests over the interests that a professional is supposed to be serving.

Failure at nearly each and every level, by nearly each and every person in a position of control or authority.

My strongest shock registers to those in government, who are charged with protecting us.  Our finance minister, and our securities commission.  Instead of getting rich by failing to do their jobs professionally, they simply stand to "not lose face", over their lack of ability to perform the job.  Maybe that is the same thing as money to a politician.

Either way, it is a breach of trust.  A criminal offense.  An offense punishable by jail.  As is criminal negligence. 

If we cannot hold our public officers accountable and responsible for their acts against the public.........and if the police cannot hold financial firms accountable or responsible for frauds against the public then we are due to repeat financial fraud over and over and over.  until our country can no longer tolerate the abuse and our economy fails.  All due to the people at the top who cannot do their job.  Iris Evan, will you please do your job?  Or premier Ed Stelmach will you please place someone in the position of Finance Minister who can do this important job?
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