Thursday, June 19, 2008

Scapegoats

"Crime and delusion on Wall Street"
http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/19/news/newsmakers/bear_cioffi.fortune/index.htm?eref=rss_topstories

Prosecutors allege two ex-Bear Stearns hedge fund managers misled investors. Perhaps, but Wall Street has long been kidding itself about the credit crunch.

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In days passed during times of great need, some poor asshole would be sacrificed as a proxy for the king. Symbolically the king's blood would be spilled and the land would become bountiful again. Originally, they actually sacrificed the king himself. As king's grew more powerful, perhaps more necessary to early forms of government, a proxy sacrifice would be preferred instead. This proxy would live in the highest fashion possible and indulge every fancy - that is, for one year. For one year the proxy was not to touch the earth and not to see the sun. At the end of it they would trot this poor bastard out and destroy him to appease the gods.

Nowadays you get to live in similar luxury for a little while. Fabulous accomodations, cable TV, bitchin' tunes, bitches, booze, cocaine...

And at the end of it all they trot you out and blame the whole mess on you. "These are the guys that stole your money!"

But hell, this is nothing. Read the Constitution, then read Title 12 of the Federal Code. Yeah, something's not right between those two works. And in the space between we get the monetrary system which far more cleverly robs you of wealth every fucking day than some dude on the street with a gun would ever be capable of. The guy with the gun goes to jail for being a bad man. The people responsible for saddling us with their funny money system are given humanitarian awards and live at the highest levels of society.

Maybe they all need their day in the sun.