Sunday, March 13, 2011

"Inside Job" - a must watch

Last week, I had the occasion to watch "Inside Job" a documentary on financial sector meltdown in the US - and its consequential effects on other economies. First, it is great to see Sony release a movie such as this in the mainstream theaters. Second, it emphasized yet again (as if reiteration was at all needed) that when confronted with self-serving greed, a system supposedly working on "self-regulation" is destined to fail.

The fact that the "freedom of markets" has been taken to an extreme - and needs urgent correction is there for all to see. Painfully, the lobbyists are so strong that the system continues - in fact becomes worse as the "solutions" turn out to be even sillier than the cause.

"Too big to fail" has now translated into "Even bigger" - rather than regulatory action breaking up large companies posing systemic risks into smaller entities that can be regulated better, the reverse has happened. The industry has managed through fear and favour to lobby the regulators and law makers from passing any laws that curtail the industry's ability to cause another catastrophe.

One hard hitting fact that emerged was the lack of intellectual integrity in the so-called thought-leader academic institutes. Leading academicians - deans and professors from Harvard and Columbia were filmed acting like petty thieves caught with their hands in the till. They apparently found nothing wrong in writing research as original work - where the recommendations benefited clients who paid for the research - and these august institutions apparently have no policy to avoid this conflict of interest.

In essence, one comes away from the movie - more than a little disgusted with the worshippers of the mammon - and of the antics of the "intellectuals" in business schools. Is it any wonder that with ethics such as theirs, the students have no compunction in causing misery to the millions in the real economy - so long as they get their bonus.!

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