Wall St. Crooks- "On par with crack addicts or obsessive deviants who burgle homes to steal panties"

[Orwellian_Ghost]

The most galling thing about this financial crisis is that so many Wall Street types think they actually deserve not only their huge bonuses and lavish lifestyles but the awesome political power their own mistakes have left them in possession of. When challenged, they talk about how hard they work, the 90-hour weeks, the stress, the failed marriages, the hemorrhoids and gallstones they all get before they hit 40.

"But wait a minute," you say to them. "No one ever asked you to stay up all night eight days a week trying to get filthy rich shorting what's left of the American auto industry or selling $600 billion in toxic, irredeemable mortgages to ex-strippers on work release and Taco Bell clerks. Actually, come to think of it, why are we even giving taxpayer money to you people? Why are we not throwing your ass in jail instead?"

But before you even finish saying that, they're rolling their eyes, because You Don't Get It. These people were never about anything except turning money into money, in order to get more money;

valueswise they're on par with crack addicts, or obsessive sexual deviants who burgle homes to steal panties.

Yet these are the people in whose hands our entire political future now rests.

Good luck with that, America. And enjoy tax season.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover/print

[Jackpine Radical]

1. This diatribe is so, so wrong.

"valueswise they're on par with crack addicts, or obsessive sexual deviants who burgle homes to steal panties."

It so happens that I've met a number of crack addicts and panty-purloining perverts, and there isn't a one of them who has sunk as low as a Wall Street rat. For one thing, the addicts and panty freaks almost never try to recast their obsessions as virtues.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

4. Gotta agree with you there

[KharmaTrain]

2. Manic Compulsives...

Way in the distant past, I worked for a company run by a man who was obsessed with money...making it, spending it and keeping others from getting it. It was like he was a squirrel...always paranoid that someone was going for his nuts and that he could never have enough money/control. I learned that the man was a recovering alcoholic and that his money obsession was not unlike his need to drink...deep, intense and dominating not only his life, but of those all around him. While drinking cost him his marriage and nearly his business, his money obsession made him popular...getting on all sorts of civic boards and hangin' out with the wheeler and dealers. His addiction was fueled by his obsession and the more money he made, the deeper the obsession became. All short-term, no real planning for consequences of his actions.

For 30 years...and the last 15 years in specific...the markets became a casino and the need to "win" became an addiction. If you made $1 million, you really weren't rich until you made $10...and then at $10 the goal post moved to $25...Greed was good and "net worth" and income became their true addictions, always needing to sate the demand for money and status all wrapped in a conveluted belief they were entitled to do so.

The withdrawl from this addiction will be profound. Imagine sports without all the corporate money or people feeling embarassed about their net worth. The days ahead will be interesting indeed as I'm seeing a lot of addicts going through massive jonsing.

[AnotherMother4Peace]

8. No regulation gave free reign to compulsive gambling with other people's

money. Compulsive gambling, irrational thought, and greed - all due to Bush's policy of deregulation.

[izquierdista]

3. Tweakers

I would classify them down with the lowest of the low, meth addicts. They can easily cause 100 to 1000 times the cost of their fix in the damage they do stealing copper wire, poisoning the hotel room they cook their meth in, burglarizing a fertilizer facility for some ammonia and then causing a major chemical spill.

It's posted on another thread that AIG burned through an average American family's income in 6 seconds with their 'sophisticated' financial instruments and risk hedging.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

7. Colossal bandits

And still the petty thief who might need to get some bread to survive is deemed the criminal we need to be worried about.

[TBF]

5. So the way this works is that Timothy McVeigh, run of the mill terrorist, gets

the death penalty and Timothy Geithner, financial terrorist, gets to be secretary of the treasury. Who decides these things?

[blindpig]

6. Wall St? Up against the wall, motherfuckers...