DEPRAVITY OF MAN, GREED

The complex financial morass is way beyond me or the average citizen for that matter. Well, to be honest, I really don't know anybody, supposedly the best and the brightest who understand it.

In some ways, it defies logic. Here's what we know: we have already given billions to bankers who if they did not cause lots of the problem, were surely complicit in the first place. And, the man who forked over the first several billion to his buds without requiring any accountability didn't once mention conflict of interest. Suspicious? When the Sec of Trea calls up his buddies, calls them by their first names--make any difference? I THINK SO.

At the heart of our financial mess has been good old greed. Who can deny that? What nobody seems to be willing to admit is that man left to his own devices will choose self interest everytime. I THINK SO. If greed is the basic nature of man that no one talks about, why do we keep avoiding it? Tell me the last time you heard a politician mention greed. Often we want answers, they are into spin when it is simple--Greed! In spiritual terms, which are as good as any, it is called the "depravity of man." I THINK SO.

Answers? I don't know any better than those who are making the decisions. But, absent of knowing, I think we are doing the best we can by at least doing something. I THINK SO.

If there has ever been a good example of the depravity of man, Bernie Madoff who is in his seventies and bilked mostly his friends out of billions, is a premo example. The laundry list of his transgressions are too much to even discuss. Another crook, in terms of "brass," is Richard Piccoli, 82, who got over 4 million from duped smart people in a 2 year period. I am amazed on many levels as these two guys should have been out playing with their grand kids. I THINK SO.