1. All bankers are greedy evil bastards.
2. Some jews are bankers.
3. Therefore, all jews are greedy evil bastards.
Whether you believe 1 or 2 is true, doesn’t matter.. 3 does not follow, but it’s very human.
Watching the videos of OWS going off on Jews, it goes way beyond banking.
Wow, it’s so clear now, everyone hates Jew’s because, because they’re all so jealous of their good looks!
Or maybe it’s because only Jews are good and nice and intelligent and generous and all those anti-Semites are evil meanies.
WASPs are the new “joos.” In a few generations, once the global elite has turned every former first-world nation on the planet into Mexico, WASPs will just float from country to country, never putting down roots, but going wherever freedom and capitalism are momentarily tolerated.
Mr. Waddington – Your syllogism works if 3. is replaced by “some jews are greedy evil bastards”. Logically sound; truth of the propositions is another matter.
I happen to think 1. is true, particularly for investment bankers – the people doing routine counter business are probably not included. 2. is self-evidently true, in the USA and UK at least.
IMHO the real problem with the banking system for the last few years has been twofold; the first point being that banks almost always have investment and retail arms, with nowhere near enough separation between the two. The second is a point of human psychology – assuming you think investment bankers are human, IMHO a dubious assumption.
The point? Reckless behaviour by bond traders and the like has been, for quite a while, a perfectly rational response to the situation. Take huge risks, and if they pay off you get a gigantic bonus. If they don’t? Well, you’ve already had a few years of six or seven-figure bonuses; who cares? The people whose money you’ve just thrown away are of no account.
The current climate in the banking system rewards psychopathic behaviour. Time that stopped. The movie “Wall Street” was not meant to be an instructional video.
The OWS hippies are greedy too. Try living among them for a few years. Their in-fighting, backstabbing social politics, and greed is just as bad as any banker.
No-one is holding a gun to your head forcing you to give money to investment bankers.
That’s because the banking system has been shielded from the brutally efficient oversight of the market. Central banks and other government supervisory bodies seem to exist to prevent real oversight: they do the bare minimum that’s necessary to fool the gullible public that everything is all right.
The anti-semitism is disturbing, but I feel Whittle is painting with a broad brush. Zionism too is utopian and there is such a thing as fundamentalist Judaism which seeks to establish the Kingdom of God in the form of a theocracy. Among the many deluded supporters of OWS there are many who are as appalled by anti-semitism as we are. And anti-islamism (!= anti islamo-fascism) isn’t all that different from anti-semitism. Xenophobia and religious intolerance are widespread.
“Among the many deluded supporters of OWS there are many who are as appalled by anti-semitism as we are. ”
Which is why you see them working to eliminate the antisemitic signs, symbols, and slogans that Zombie (among others) has chronicled so well.
That must be why so many Occupistas have protested at the public support OWS has garnered from the likes of the American Nazi Party and the government of Iran.
Oh wait… That’s not happening at all, is it? None of that has actually happened, has it? Well, I guess they must not be as appalled as all of that. In fact, given that such behavior is overtly tolerated, it sounds more like the Occupistas don’t mind at all.
In the few conversations I have had online with OWS protesters, they basically respond, “So what?” when asked about the anti-semitism, other racist language, and violence toward people that disagree with them.
Sure, Mr. Waddington. The problem is that the banks themselves have been giving our money to their investment arms – and it is very difficult to live without a bank account, and just about impossible to run a business without one. Unless, perhaps, your business is something like a window-cleaning round or a shoeshine stall. (Nothing wrong with either, but there are stict limits on how many of either can actually make money.)
One way of sorting this out might be by balancing bonuses for good performance with similar sized (or preferably larger) fines for screwing up. Backed up by jail time if not paid.
Nah, it’s simple logic fail.
1. All bankers are greedy evil bastards.
2. Some jews are bankers.
3. Therefore, all jews are greedy evil bastards.
Whether you believe 1 or 2 is true, doesn’t matter.. 3 does not follow, but it’s very human.
Watching the videos of OWS going off on Jews, it goes way beyond banking.
Wow, it’s so clear now, everyone hates Jew’s because, because they’re all so jealous of their good looks!
Or maybe it’s because only Jews are good and nice and intelligent and generous and all those anti-Semites are evil meanies.
WASPs are the new “joos.” In a few generations, once the global elite has turned every former first-world nation on the planet into Mexico, WASPs will just float from country to country, never putting down roots, but going wherever freedom and capitalism are momentarily tolerated.
Mr. Waddington – Your syllogism works if 3. is replaced by “some jews are greedy evil bastards”. Logically sound; truth of the propositions is another matter.
I happen to think 1. is true, particularly for investment bankers – the people doing routine counter business are probably not included. 2. is self-evidently true, in the USA and UK at least.
IMHO the real problem with the banking system for the last few years has been twofold; the first point being that banks almost always have investment and retail arms, with nowhere near enough separation between the two. The second is a point of human psychology – assuming you think investment bankers are human, IMHO a dubious assumption.
The point? Reckless behaviour by bond traders and the like has been, for quite a while, a perfectly rational response to the situation. Take huge risks, and if they pay off you get a gigantic bonus. If they don’t? Well, you’ve already had a few years of six or seven-figure bonuses; who cares? The people whose money you’ve just thrown away are of no account.
The current climate in the banking system rewards psychopathic behaviour. Time that stopped. The movie “Wall Street” was not meant to be an instructional video.
The OWS hippies are greedy too. Try living among them for a few years. Their in-fighting, backstabbing social politics, and greed is just as bad as any banker.
No-one is holding a gun to your head forcing you to give money to investment bankers.
That’s because the banking system has been shielded from the brutally efficient oversight of the market. Central banks and other government supervisory bodies seem to exist to prevent real oversight: they do the bare minimum that’s necessary to fool the gullible public that everything is all right.
The anti-semitism is disturbing, but I feel Whittle is painting with a broad brush. Zionism too is utopian and there is such a thing as fundamentalist Judaism which seeks to establish the Kingdom of God in the form of a theocracy. Among the many deluded supporters of OWS there are many who are as appalled by anti-semitism as we are. And anti-islamism (!= anti islamo-fascism) isn’t all that different from anti-semitism. Xenophobia and religious intolerance are widespread.
“Among the many deluded supporters of OWS there are many who are as appalled by anti-semitism as we are. ”
Which is why you see them working to eliminate the antisemitic signs, symbols, and slogans that Zombie (among others) has chronicled so well.
That must be why so many Occupistas have protested at the public support OWS has garnered from the likes of the American Nazi Party and the government of Iran.
Oh wait… That’s not happening at all, is it? None of that has actually happened, has it? Well, I guess they must not be as appalled as all of that. In fact, given that such behavior is overtly tolerated, it sounds more like the Occupistas don’t mind at all.
In the few conversations I have had online with OWS protesters, they basically respond, “So what?” when asked about the anti-semitism, other racist language, and violence toward people that disagree with them.
Sure, Mr. Waddington. The problem is that the banks themselves have been giving our money to their investment arms – and it is very difficult to live without a bank account, and just about impossible to run a business without one. Unless, perhaps, your business is something like a window-cleaning round or a shoeshine stall. (Nothing wrong with either, but there are stict limits on how many of either can actually make money.)
One way of sorting this out might be by balancing bonuses for good performance with similar sized (or preferably larger) fines for screwing up. Backed up by jail time if not paid.