Wealth, Greed, and Punishment

There were two interesting articles in the New York Times yesterday. One about Ruth Madoff (oddly, the article was placed in the Style Section) and how vendors, restaurants, and even her hairdresser have shunned her since her husband's arrest and subsequent guilty plea. Although she has not even been questioned by the US Attorney's office, "the street" belief is that she is as guilty as her husband, or at least, seemed to enjoy spending the "ill gotten" gains as much as he did. So New York restaurants, Hamptons florists, and her upper east side hairdresser have all asked her to disappear, to not patronize them.

Her hairdresser, with whom she loyally went to every six weeks for dozens of years, said that he knew people who lost "millions." Same thing with the florist. And the restaurants didn't want other patrons to leave if she showed up.

As the Madoff story continues to unfold, it is becoming clear that most if not all the investors will recover their principal. In other words, the amounts they gave Bernie Madoff to invest. What they "lost" was the unrealistic profits he promised them. The gains.

So here is this woman, not guilty of anything, being punished for something her husband did. And because, according to the article, she is not playing the public relations game. It's ironic, isn't it, that the people who sought Madoff's investments did so because he made them think they were getting something exclusive, something for only a few people. The peons were not able to get these massive returns. Yet when it all fell apart, these investors still have not learned a lesson about humility. They still seek exclusivity. God forbid that they get their hair cut next to someone who is married to a felon! Or show some empathy. Or compassion. Or even loyalty to someone who was loyal to them. But then, those very same "triggers" are what made Madoff so successful, he played into the emotions that these investors continue to have.

The second article was about the Yellowstone Club. I have talked about this place in previous posts. An exclusive club in Montana where just to join you have to have something like 5 million in liquid assets. It advertised itself as a place where the rich could "check their egos at the door." Well, clearly that never happened. The owners of the club, Tim and Edra Blixith, made and lost several fortunes, but finally figured out, like Bernie Madoff, that appealing to the need of the rich to run with the rich could make them money.

Now, of course, the Yellowstone Club is in bankruptcy, as is Edra Blixith who is divorced from Tim. The Blixiths took the Club and leveraged it for over 300 million, using much of that money not to improve the Club, but rather to buy all sorts of things for themselves and a failed "swanky" time share idea further enabling the really wealthy to stay away from the rest of us.

It now appears, like the Madoffs, that the Blixith's new occupations are responding the lawsuits.

There are dozens of morals in both of these stories. Hopefully we begin to look at our seemingly insatiable need for money and more money as an illness rather than something to celebrate. That we begin to really examine how we got into this age of greed not as a "fad" of self examination as we read our new subscription to Living Simply, but really as a means to understand how unhealthy this past decade or so has been for us, the planet, and our future. And maybe Rith Madoff's hairdresser can find it in himself to just cut her hair.

Changing our Culture

Recently I have not agreed with New York Times columnist Frank Rich.  It's not that I haven't accepted his premise or even understood his ultimate purpose, but he has been, I think, a cheerleader for the current Administration when he severely chastised pundits during the Bush Administration for doing the same thing.  When you have a major opinion column in the major newspaper (or maybe the last newspaper standing) in America, you have some obligation to be a critical thinker.

It caught me by surprise when I agreed with his recent column about the culture of greed in America.  The conclusion of his piece is the same thing I have been saying: in order to get out economy back into shape, we need, we must, get our culture into shape.  We must stop reveling the symbols of greed.

Recently I had dinner with friends, one of the couple's is expecting their first child.  They have both made significant amounts of money, like many young couples in the Puget Sound region, off of a software located in Redmond, Washington.  They are excited and nervous.  The dinner discussion turned, a little prematurely perhaps, to schools.  It turns out it is a topic they have researched quite extensively, as well as nannies and dulas.  And their belief has essentially come down to finding the best private school for their child, hoping that eventually it will attend Harvard or another Ivy League school, so that the child can essentially repeat their financial success.

I idly wondered what they would do if the kid wanted to be a carpenter?

But I think the thing that scared me the most is not only are we a culture that worships money, but that money continues to purchase elite status in this country.  No doubt the child will have to achieve in school, but already it has a leg up on most children without the financial resources of it's parents who are easily weathering this depression.  Essentially, we continue to create a country of elites and the rest of us.

Yet, we are in a depression.  So who can blame the folks who want to watch CNBC and stock jockeys like Jim Cramer who exhort you to buy low, sell high, and make a lot of money in the stock market.  Who can blame anyone for wanting to be as comfortable as the couple expecting their first child, eagerly investigating the pluses and minuses of private schools and what contributions parents must make to get their child on "the list."

On the other hand, if we also realize that each person is of value, that we all have amazing gifts to contribute, perhaps the private elite school education isn't as important as the ability to give to our society.

We voted for change last November, but the change really must come within all of us.  It's time.

Civility and Community

A friend wrote me the morning after the women's NCAA Basketball Championships that he watched the whole game despite University of Connecticut's domination over Louisville.  He commented that he was impressed with the coach of Louisville's sportsmanship, how he hugged all the UConn players, smiling and laughing with them in their joy over trouncing his own team.  We are, I think, at a loss of that type of civility and community in this country.

I was struck by an article in the New York Times about a dry and arcane subject: municipal bonds.  Apparently over the past few decades the relatively stable and mundane area of municipal bonds has also become a high volume, big money gambling machine.  Essentially, towns and cities have been convinced by investment counselors to issue bond derivatives which bet on interest rates or the bond market itself remaining stable.  The "gift" to municipalities, is that they pay low interest rates during the first few years.  It makes building a new sewer plant far easier.

Of course, as we have seen with all these complex securities, the markets are far from stable, and when chaos happens, the victims are left picking up the tab while the so-called investment whiz-kids are laughing in their mansions.

There can be thousands of discussions about the innocence or vulnerability of the victims, or in this case how financial managers of municipalities really ought to be sophisticated enough to see through these schemes.  But in reality, our society has become less civil, less oriented toward what is good for the community and more about predator and prey.

The Lords of Wall Street viewed everyone as prey.  I am convinced they walked into their offices everyday trying to figure out how to beguile each of us out of our money, not concerned about whether they were helping us or not.  Of course, the pretense, the come-on, was that they were helping us, just like the Lords of Mortgages wanted us all to believe they were helping us lower our interest rates.  It's as if these folks kept dog-eared copies of Lord of the Flies as their guide to daily living on island Earth with all the rest of us rather than the Golden Rule.  

Perhaps as we culturally begin to develop "green ethics" we also need to cultivate a sense of civility and community.  That we are not prey or predator, but rather a community of people.  That we no longer honor masses of money and gluttony as achievement but rather "what can I do for you today?" becomes a sign of greatness.  While regulation of these industries can "force" civility, it will also only cause the "brains" to figure out ways to get around the laws.  These Lord of the Flies issues really must be addressed culturally, to get at the root of it.   

In the meantime, value someone who is trying to do good.

On Greed

This morning, 12 adults, from a female fire fighter to a international banker, sat in front of a elementary school student body to explain what they do for a living.  There was a woman, trained as a hair stylist who founded a children's theatre, a camera man for documentaries seen on The Discovery Channel, a chef who opened his own oven roasted pizza restaurant after being an elementary school teacher, an architect designing affordable housing, a immunologist, a forester (me!), and a director of operas.  Each person spoke passionately about following the things in life that make you happy.  About giving to the community.  Not one student asked about how much money we made (although one precocious child asked if I got to shoot wild animals!).

And so, on this day, when Bernie Madoff was shackled and taken to a Federal Detention Center in Manhattan, when his victims cheered and clapped when he was hauled away, this piece by Tim Egan, says it all.   

I met Patsy Collins (referenced in the article) and worked with Bill Gates, Sr.  Both were and are amazing people.  We have a lot to learn from folks who understand commitment to community, family, and that following your passion is far more important that how much money you can make.  Greed was prevalent throughout our society, especially the past few years.  We're all in the mess together.  And it will take all of us to get us out of it.

Now, now it the time for us, in Patsy Collin's words, to "give forward."