Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Dead souls

Paul B. Farrell, who writes on MarketWatch, has come to be one of my favorite Web commentators, mostly because he sees the existence of a strong moral factor present in our unhappy financial situation. Faber writes:
Jack Bogle published "The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism" four years ago. The battle's over. The sequel should be titled: "Capitalism Died a Lost Soul." Worse, we've lost "America's Soul." And worldwide the consequences will be catastrophic.

This piece was published on Oct. 20; it's titled "'Death of Soul of Capitalism' Bogle, Faber, Moore." Look here. The unhappy truth is that most of our present problems are attributable to ugly and unfettered greed as practiced by a bunch of amoral greedheads in the financial sector of the American economy. Not denying the role of mindless acquisitiveness in the general public, but the heaviest guilt lies at the doorstep of the Wall Streeters, who are still grabbing it with both hands and glibly justifying their greed as a just reward for their great work. Someday the people of this country will snap to what's been done to them by the bankers and hedge-fund managers. I hope things get vengeful when they do snap.

5 comments:

Kari said...

This post reminds me of a remark a friend of mine made recently. She said she was suffering, not from heart-break, but from soul-break. It seems as if we have a case of national soul-break here.

chats said...

Nice, Kari. "Eat the rich, yum, yum"... What the Loon has always referred to as that sense of entitlement...

Mimi said...

Cicero would agree with the Loon as his country had ceased fighting for what was right and just, that is, defensively, and fought for aggrandisement, that is, greed. Source, "The Good Life."

The Loon said...

Or, as the wonderful Robert Browning had it about an earlier time of excess: 'What of soul was left, I wonder, when the kissing had to stop?' Looks like maybe the kissing has to stop.
Chats – to repeat myself – and use their bones for boiler fuel.

The Loon said...

And, Mimi, a little Roman sense of duty would be nice in the US. You're not gonna see any of our DC dirtballs going back to the plow. Instead, they take jobs as lobbyists.