Damn! the weather and television
Its very depressing....spring hasn't arrived in full flow yet and it continues to tinkle from the sky...and occasionally get freaking cold...! It does not help either to have television limited to stories of Wall street boys who have spent most part of the last 10 years working on conning people of their money. PBS showed two excellent episodes on Frontline to cover the meltdown and the Madoff scandal. I recommend to anyone who has not yet felt infuriated with the way a bunch of loonies went about looting people's money in an unregulated orgy of banking excesses and fraud.
It follows that any industry without oversight and regulation is prone to mischief, excess and fraud. It is interesting to see some cultural commentary and perception that parallel this premise.To look into this mess, I look to the view that financial planners, lenders etc were viewed in ancient cultures. In Indian culture, finanical men usually lenders are known as bania or in bollywood simply "sethji". "Sethji" , in such context usually refers to a class of people who make money by preying on people who are oblivious to the rules of engagement or lack of it and help create wealth for the sethji more due to their lack of oversight than pure commercial or financial activity.
In this meltdown, such "Banias" or "Sethji" with their freaking Harvard,Wharton degrees have preyed upon unsuspecting people and their faith. I find it even more non-plussing that despite all industries being answerable to law, Architecture, one of the most subjective profession coming under the riors of law, the financial industry is largely insulated from it. For the relief of anyone who has used a credit card that finally this administration and President Obama has taken this industry to task and all those disclaimers and fine print that traps every person who owns a credit card in under the scanner and the eraser.
Its hight time these financial leeches should be purged if not with burning cigarette butts off our skin but atleast with the weight of a shoe that refuses to remove its step once its squashes it prey under it...Damn those Harvard,Wharton MBAs....!
It follows that any industry without oversight and regulation is prone to mischief, excess and fraud. It is interesting to see some cultural commentary and perception that parallel this premise.To look into this mess, I look to the view that financial planners, lenders etc were viewed in ancient cultures. In Indian culture, finanical men usually lenders are known as bania or in bollywood simply "sethji". "Sethji" , in such context usually refers to a class of people who make money by preying on people who are oblivious to the rules of engagement or lack of it and help create wealth for the sethji more due to their lack of oversight than pure commercial or financial activity.
In this meltdown, such "Banias" or "Sethji" with their freaking Harvard,Wharton degrees have preyed upon unsuspecting people and their faith. I find it even more non-plussing that despite all industries being answerable to law, Architecture, one of the most subjective profession coming under the riors of law, the financial industry is largely insulated from it. For the relief of anyone who has used a credit card that finally this administration and President Obama has taken this industry to task and all those disclaimers and fine print that traps every person who owns a credit card in under the scanner and the eraser.
Its hight time these financial leeches should be purged if not with burning cigarette butts off our skin but atleast with the weight of a shoe that refuses to remove its step once its squashes it prey under it...Damn those Harvard,Wharton MBAs....!
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