Good quote from Time Magazine

[Geoffrey]

Every so often you run into a few well-crafted words that seem to reduce a very complex subject into a few easily understood concepts. The follow quote grabbed me this way -- I thought I would share it.

“Years ago, the investment world and its professionals believed in long-term relationships. That meant nurturing the economy and the companies and people in it. Two decades of cheap money, though, helped turn the Street over to the traders. That led to a very different way of doing business. “With a trader, the goal of every minute of every day is to make money,” says Phillip Meyer, who worked for UBS as a trader in the late 1990s and early 2000s before going on to write about his time there.” So if running the economy off the cliff makes you money, you will do it, and you will do it every day of every week.”

"The Case Against Goldman Sachs”, Time Magazine, May 3, 2010.

 

[brewer12345]

Um, so what? Markets need traders. How do you think arbitrages get ground down to nothing? I'll never be a trader and I laugh at some of the nonsense theu spew at times, but I will freely acknowledge that I and other market participants generally benefit from their activity.

 

[BUM]

The article speaks to causing and profiting from America's woes. If you can't beat 'em buy SKF

 

[ERD50]

I'm not buying it. Sounds like selective memory to me - the 'good old days'. I'm no Bible scholar, but as I recall, one of the first stories about people involves greed. Greed has been around a long time, and greedy people use whatever tools are at their disposal.

In many ways, life moves faster today. Shouldn't be any surprise that greed moves faster too.

Years ago, the investment world and its professionals believed in long-term relationships. That meant nurturing the economy and the companies and people in it.

Right. Back when I was kid I recall insurance salesman and 'investment professionals' coming to the house to talk to Mom & Dad. And now I see they got put into some pretty questionable products. So they sucked out a little money, slowly, over a long time. No big diff in my book. I see that article as just another journalist trying to 'connect' with some readers.

-ERD50

 

[Emeritus]

The problem is not traders who gamble their own money and provide valuable liquidity to the market. The problem is when they start trading other people's money. That creates a whole nightmare of problems. Traders cheating the hapless and stupid does not generate wealth. The worst is where they cheat people , not out of their own money but out of other people's money who entrusted it to the suckers as "managers". e.g. traders sucker local pension managers who squander worker's pensions.

 

[Westernskies]

The problem is not traders who gamble their own money and provide valuable liquidity to the market. The problem is when they start trading other people's money. That creates a whole nightmare of problems. Traders cheating the hapless and stupid does not generate wealth. The worst is where they cheat people , not out of their own money but out of other people's money who entrusted it to the suckers as "managers". e.g. traders sucker local pension managers who squander worker's pensions.

...but I bet you are working on a regulatory solution to this problem, too!

TO-DO-LIST

Day 1. Ground the Concorde
Day 2. Overhaul FDA
Day 3. Re-write Building Codes
Day 4. Liquidate BP
Day 5. Reform Car Warranty regulations
Day 6. Reform SEC
Day 7. Rest

 

[FinanceDude]

The problem is not traders who gamble their own money and provide valuable liquidity to the market. The problem is when they start trading other people's money. That creates a whole nightmare of problems. Traders cheating the hapless and stupid does not generate wealth. The worst is where they cheat people , not out of their own money but out of other people's money who entrusted it to the suckers as "managers". e.g. traders sucker local pension managers who squander worker's pensions.

Are you sure you're not in Obama's Cabinet? You sure sound like one of those "czars" he keeps creating positions for.......

 

[HFWR]

Are you sure you're not in Obama's Cabinet? You sure sound like one of those "czars" he keeps creating positions for.......

He could be the "biz czar"...

 

[toofrugalformycat]

He could be the "biz czar"...

 

[Emeritus]

...but I bet you are working on a regulatory solution to this problem, too!

TO-DO-LIST

Day 1. Ground the Concorde
Day 2. Overhaul FDA
Day 3. Re-write Building Codes
Day 4. Liquidate BP
Day 5. Reform Car Warranty regulations
Day 6. Reform SEC
Day 7. Rest

Real to do list for today

I teach tonight from 5-8:20

Review and create slides about new Supreme Court decision on patenting of business methods.
Review slides on software validation and verification in FDA Bureau of devices and radiological health
Write thank you note to speaker from FDA who came to class Monday

Create new slides on class action and code failure in Chinese Drywall problem.
Incorporate comments from Early retirement website into slides comparing Business-Medical Legal and Engineering ethics.

Update slides on aleatory epistemic and teleological uncertainty in the use of mathematical risk models in building safety regulation. make sure the sutdents have my papers in those areas.

Review students final exam topics, the one on roller coaster safety needs a note about the Chinese amusement park deaths.

Besides class I have to review the call for papers for the international conference on volcanic ash regulation I'm organizing in Paris in November.
I have to pay my Bar dues
I have to check on the German translation of my course notes for the course in Kempten
Send in the abstract on the admissibility of certain forensic sciences after the national academy report last year.
Write a position paper on paid and volunteer fire departments for my niece who is running for the State Legislature.

Take my wife to work

Busy day. Glad I'm not working full time anymore

 

[REWahoo]

Proving once again you can be anything you want to be on the internet...

 

[brewer12345]

Proving once again you can be anything you want to be on the internet...

Heh.

And here I was going to take the low road by observing that it sounds like a full evening of mental masturbation...

 

[FinanceDude]

Proving once again you can be anything you want to be on the internet...

 

[dex]

I'm not buying it. Sounds like selective memory to me - the 'good old days'. I'm no Bible scholar, but as I recall, one of the first stories about people involves greed. Greed has been around a long time, and greedy people use whatever tools are at their disposal.

In many ways, life moves faster today. Shouldn't be any surprise that greed moves faster too.


Right. Back when I was kid I recall insurance salesman and 'investment professionals' coming to the house to talk to Mom & Dad. And now I see they got put into some pretty questionable products. So they sucked out a little money, slowly, over a long time. No big diff in my book. I see that article as just another journalist trying to 'connect' with some readers.

-ERD50

Good points.
Also, remember all the talk in the 80s about companies focus only on quarterly profits and not the long term.

One aspect of capitalism is that it can exploit imbalances in markets - cheap labor in China; move mfg there to get a price advantage over your competitors.

Nothing new in the quote. What is new is the depth of demon-ization going on now; not just Wall St. but of the rich and people with a differing opinions.